Ceramic materials for solid oxide fuel cells.
During the last years, the study of ceramic materials used in manufacturing of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), is becoming a priority research among the scientific community. The main reason is the importance of the development of alternative ways to generate electrical energy, substitutive of pure thermal ones, in order to improve the efficiency, and overcome cost problems, scarcity of fossil fuels, and, most important, environmental problems. The study of SOFC has, consequently, a certain tradition. The interest in this type of devices is increasing with time, and nowadays their importance is such that, at national and European level, thematic nets are created to join efforts to reach technological objectives that lead to overcome some problems that still limit a massive use of SOFC. One of the novel interest lines is to prepare SOFC that can supply medium powers for distributed and mobile applications, such as automotive, air conditioning, housing, etc., working at moderate temperatures, with lesser demand of infrastructure.
The application of this subline is basically oriented to the progress in the knowledge of the technology of the IT Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, (600º-800ºC), to the improvement of its energetic yield and to the enlargement of its mean life, with the subsequent economic impact on industry areas such as gas, electric generation, basic equipment and automotive and building as final customers. It is intended to use the previous experience, obtained with previous projects, on the preparation of nanometric and nanostructured dense layers of ionic conductors of Ce1-xBxO2-y (B=Sm, Gd).