Corning Incorporated

Jeffrey Earl Cortright

Pamela Arlene Maurey

Robert Michael Morena

Thomas Dale Ketcham

Lisa Ann Lamberson

Scott Christopher Pollard

Dilip K Chatterjee

Michael Edward Badding

Ronald E Johnson

Yawei Sun

Dell Joseph St Julien

David Myron Lineman

Sujanto Widjaja

John David Helfinstine

Phong Diep

Samir Biswas

Irene Marjorie Slater

Martha Blanche Custer

Dilip Kumar Chatterjee

A method and resulting device for metallic structures including interconnects and sealed frames for solid oxide fuel cells, particularly those with multi-cell electrolyte sheets, includes providing a high-temperature aluminum-containing surface-alumina-forming steel, forming an interconnect structure from the steel, removing any alumina layer from a surface portion of the interconnect where an electrical contact is to be formed, providing a structure having a surface portion with which electrical contact is to be made by the surface portion of the interconnect, and brazing the surface portion of the interconnect to the surface portion of the structure, and sealing fuel cell frames by brazing.

Metallic structures for solid oxide fuel cells

A stress reducing mounting for an electrolyte sheet assembly in a solid electrolyte fuel cell is provided that includes a support frame or manifold having an inner edge portion that supports a peripheral portion of the sheet assembly, a seal that affixes an edge of the peripheral portion to the frame or manifold, and a stress reducer disposed around the peripheral portion of the electrolyte sheet and the frame or manifold that reduces tensile stress in the peripheral portion of the electrolyte sheet when the peripheral portion is bent by pressure differentials or thermal differential expansion. The stress reducer is at least one of a convex curved surface on the inner edge portion of the frame or manifold that makes area contact with the peripheral portion when it bends in response to a pressure differential or thermal differential expansion, and a stiffening structure on the sheet peripheral portion that renders the ceramic sheet material forming the peripheral portion more resistant to bending. The stress reducing mounting reduces cracking in the electrolyte sheet at the peripheral portions due to tensile forces.

Stress reducing mounting for electrolyte sheet assembly in a solid oxide fuel cell

An electrolyte sheet comprises a substantially non-porous body and has at least one stress-relief area on at least a portion of the electrolyte sheet. The stress-relief area has a surface with a plurality of smoothly domed cells.

Electrolyte sheet with a corrugation pattern

An exemplary fuel cell device assembly is a fuel cell stack assembly comprising: (i) a plurality of fuel cell packets, each of the packets comprising (a) a frame and (b) two planar electrolyte-supported fuel cell arrays, the fuel cell arrays arranged such that anode side of one fuel cell array faces the anode side of another fuel cell array, and the frame in combination with the fuel cell arrays defines a fuel chamber; (ii) a main enclosure enclosing the plurality of fuel cell packets, such that the plurality of packets form a plurality of oxidant channels; (iii) a restrictor plate forming, in conjunction with the fuel cell pockets, a plurality of oxidant channels; (iv) an inlet oxidant plenum manifold connected to one side of the oxidant channels; (v) an outlet oxidant plenum manifold connected to the other side of the oxidant channels; (vi) an inlet fuel manifold connected to one side of each of the fuel chambers; and (vii) an outlet fuel manifold connected to the other side of each of the fuel chambers.

Fuel cell stack assembly

A solid oxide fuel cell device incorporates a sealing material resistant to hydrogen gas permeation at a sealing temperature in the intermediate temperature range of 600&#xb0; C.&#x2013;900&#xb0; C., the seal having a CTE in the 100&#xd7;10/&#xb0; C. to 120&#xd7;10/&#xb0; C., wherein the sealing material comprises in weight %, of: (i) a 80 wt % to 100 wt % glass frit, the glass frit itself having a composition comprising in mole percent of: SiO15&#x2013;65; LiO 0&#x2013;5; NaO 0&#x2013;5; KO 0&#x2013;10; MgO 0&#x2013;5; CaO 0&#x2013;32; AlO0&#x2013;10; BO0&#x2013;50; SrO 0 to 25, wherein the total amount of alkalis is less than 10 mole %; and

Low alkali sealing frits, and seals and devices utilizing such frits

A solid oxide fuel cell device incorporates a sealing material resistant to hydrogen gas permeation at a sealing temperature in the intermediate temperature range of 600&#xb0; C.&#x2013;800&#xb0; C., the seal having a CTE in the 100&#xd7;10/&#xb0; C. to 120&#xd7;10/&#xb0; C., wherein the sealing material comprises in weight %, of: (i) a 80 to 95 wt % of glass frit, the glass frit itself having a composition in mole percent of: SiO70&#x2013;85%; AlO0&#x2013;5%; NaO0&#x2013;8%; KO 10&#x2013;25%; ZnO 0&#x2013;10%; ZrO0&#x2013;6%; MgO 0&#x2013;7%; TiO0&#x2013;2%; and (ii) and 5 wt % to 25 wt % of addition comprising at least one of: alumina, zirconia or leucite.

Sealing materials and devices utilizing such materials

A method for fabricating optical devices for transmission and/or manipulation of light includes steps of providing a substrate which defines a reference plane for positioning cladding material and core material, fixing rigid spacers to an upper surface of the substrate, the spacers having upper surfaces which define a second plane spaced above the reference plane, depositing a layer of a formable, curable under-cladding material over the upper surface of the substrate, the upper surface of the rigid spacers providing a guide for precise control of the height of the under-cladding material above the surface of the substrate, curing the under-cladding material under compression to form an under-cladding layer, and depositing a light guide core and over-cladding on the under-cladding. The method is susceptible to mass production and provides more precise control of the position of the light guide core relative to a substrate surface. The resulting optical device includes a substrate, a pattern of rigid spacers fixed to the upper surface of the substrate, a polymeric under-cladding layer positioned on the substrate and in space defined between the rigid spacers, a polymer light guide core positioned on the under-cladding layer, and a polymeric over-cladding layer positioned over the light guide core and at least a portion of the under-cladding.

Growing community of inventors

Corning, NY, United States of America

Jeffrey Earl Cortright