Electrical conductivity in a fuel cell assembly
AssigneeCeramic Fuel Cells Limited
InventorDonald Jaffrey
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Abstract
A solid oxide fuel cell assembly has a gas separator plate and a silver electrically conducting layer between the gas separator plate and the cathode layer of the adjacent fuel cell. The conductive layer may be in the form of a mesh or other sheet which permits oxygen-containing gas in gas channels to pass through the conductive layer and access to the cathode layer. The silver may be pure, alloyed, present as an intermetallic compound, or present as a composite with a non-metal.
Claims20
A solid oxide fuel cell assembly comprising a planar fuel cell having a solid oxide electrolyte layer with an anode layer on one side and a cathode layer on the other side, the fuel cell being disposed between a first thermally conductive high temperature-resisting metal alloy gas separator member adjacent the cathode layer and a second thermally conductive high temperature-resisting metal alloy gas separator member adjacent the anode layer, oxygen containing gas passages being provided between the cathode layer and the first gas separator member and fuel gas passages being provided between the anode layer and the second gas separator member, wherein a layer of electrically conductive material is provided between the cathode layer and the first gas separator member in electrical contact with the cathode layer to conduct electrical current away from the cathode layer, said electrically conductive layer being adapted to permit the oxygen-containing gas in the oxygen-containing gas passages to contact the cathode layer and comprising silver, and wherein the first gas separator member has a layer of alumina adjacent the layer of electrically conductive material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.