Reduction in the operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells - Potential use in transport applications

The development of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) offers new perspectives, in particular as auxiliary power units for vehicle applications. The elaboration of thin electrolyte layers is the main challenge in order to reduce their operating temperature. A brief review of the deposition techniques and of the potential electrolytes is presented. A relatively new technique, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), allows to produce thin, dense and homogeneous layers, i.e. zirconia or zirconia-based thin layers can be deposited on different substrates. The interest of elaborating bi- or multilayer electrolytes is outlined.