Systems and methods for the fabrication and evaluation of arrays of electrode and electrolyte materials for use in solid oxide fuel cells

A system for the fabrication and evaluation of an array of electrode or electrolyte materials for use in a solid oxide fuel cell, the system comprising:

• a material handling device operable for individually containing a plurality of materials;
• a mixing device operable for mixing the plurality of materials to form a plurality of combinations of the plurality of materials;
• a material delivery device operable for delivering a predetermined one of the plurality of combinations of the plurality of materials to each of a plurality of regions of a substrate, wherein the plurality of regions of the substrate form an array;
• a temperature control device operable for heating the array, thereby sintering the array;
• one or more sampling mechanisms operable for gathering performance data from each of the plurality of regions of the substrate;
• and
• a testing device operably coupled to the one or more sampling mechanisms, wherein the testing device is operable for receiving the performance data associated with each of the plurality of regions of the substrate and evaluating the relative performance of each of the plurality of regions of the substrate.

A method for the fabrication and evaluation of an array of electrode or electrolyte materials for use in a solid oxide fuel cell, the method comprising:

• individually containing a plurality of materials;
• mixing the plurality of materials to form a plurality of combinations of the plurality of materials;
• and
• delivering a predetermined one of the plurality of combinations of the plurality of materials to each of a plurality of regions of a substrate, wherein the plurality of regions of the substrate form an array.