The evaluation of Ca doped GDC electrolyte thin film for solid oxide fuel cells by electron beam deposition

Electron beam deposition technique was used for formation of gadolinium Ca doped GDC electrolyte thin films. Ca-GDC electrolyte thin films were grown by evaporating Gd _0.1Ce _0.9O _1.95 ceramic powder. The evaporating Ca-GDC electrolyte powder was synthesized by solid-state reaction method. The GDC thin films were deposited on porous Ni-GDC anode pellet. Operating technical parameters that influence thin film microstructure and crystallite size were studied. It was found that electron gun power (changed in the range of 0.60 to 1.05 kW) has the influence on the crystallite size of GDC thin films and decreased linearly increasing electron beam gun power. The influence of electron gun power and annealing temperature on thin film structure and surface morphology were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using CuKα-radiation in the range of 2 = 20∼80°C. The XRD peaks was showed formation of single-phase monoclinic structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for the doped Ca GDC electrolyte. The patterns indicated the intensity of well-cubic fluorite structure phase.The morphology and the size of the prepared particles were investigated with a field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The performance of the cells was evaluated over 500∼800°C using humidified hydrogen as fuel and air as oxidant.