Metastable ceramic fuel cell and method of making same

Abstract

A method of preparing a solid oxide fuel cell, including plasma spraying onto a substrate a fully molten multi-oxide ceramic material; and quenching said molten ceramic material to form a layer of a far-from-equilibrium, metastable structure selected from the group consisting of nanocrystalline, nanocomposite and amorphous. The multi-oxide ceramic material can form the anode, cathode and/or electrolyte layers of a solid oxide fuel cell. The electrolyte layer has a matrix of the ceramic material, and is impervious and serves as a fast oxygen ion conductor. The electrolyte layer has a matrix of the ceramic material and a dopant dispersed therein in an amount substantially greater than its equilibrium solubility in the ceramic matrix. The anode layer includes a continuous surface area metallic phase in which electron conduction is provided by the metallic phase and the multi-oxide ceramic matrix provides ionic conduction.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is: 
     
         1 . In a method of making a solid oxide fuel cell, the steps comprising:
 (a) plasma spraying onto a substrate a fully molten multi-oxide ceramic material; and   (b) instantaneously quenching said molten ceramic material to form a layer of a far-from-equilibrium, metastable structure selected from the group consisting of nanocrystalline, nanocomposite and amorphous.