Kyocera Corporation

Shoji Yamashita

Shoji Kohsaka

Masahide Akiyama

Masato Nishihara

Takashi Ono

Yoshitake Terashi

Tetsuro Fujimoto

Takashi Shigehisa

Kazuto Matsukami

An electrode support for fuel cells, the electrode support being made of a porous material having a Ni phase of Ni or NiO and an inorganic skeletal material phase, wherein an oxidation/reduction expansion-suppressing metal M of at least one selected from the group consisting of Fe, Co and Mn is solidly dissolved in the Ni phase or is biasedly distributed on the grain boundaries between the Ni phase and the inorganic skeletal material phase. The electrode support has its volume very little expanded or contracted even in an environment in which it is exposed to the reducing atmosphere and the oxidizing atmosphere alternately. The fuel cell having the fuel electrode, electrolyte layer and oxygen electrode formed on the electrode support effectively prevents the occurrence of cracks or exfoliation caused by expansion and the like when the reduction/oxidation cycle is repeated accompanying the generation of electricity and stop of generation, and maintains reliability very excellently over extended periods of time.

Electrode support for fuel cells

A fuel cell comprising a gas-permeable and electrically conducting support substrate having a fuel gas passage formed therein; a fuel-electrode layer formed on said substrate; a solid electrolytic layer formed on said support substrate so as to cover said fuel-electrode layer and containing ZrOin which rare earth elements are existing in the form of solid solutions; and an oxygen-electrode provided on the solid electrolytic layer so as to face said fuel-electrode layer; wherein said support substrate is formed of a metal of the iron family and/or an oxide of a metal of the iron family, and a rare-earth oxide containing at least one kind of element selected from the group consisting of Y, Lu, Yb, Tm, Er, Ho, Dy, Gd, Sm and Pr. The invention brings a coefficient of thermal expansion of the support substrate close to that of the solid electrolytic layer, and prevents a reduction in the performance of the solid electrolyte caused by the diffusion of elements from the support substrate.

Fuel cell

A solid oxide fuel cell comprising an electrically conducting electrode-support substrate, an inner electrode layer, a solid electrolyte layer, an outer electrode layer and an interconnector, wherein said electrode-support substrate includes a flat plate having two flat surfaces which are in parallel with each other and forming a plurality of gas flow passages therein, and curved portions located at both ends of said flat plate, and said outer electrode layer is laminated on the solid electrolyte layer so as to be opposed to the other surface of said flat plate where the interconnector is not provided but so as not to be opposed to said curved portions. The solid oxide fuel cell features a small voltage drop, an increased output density, and is easily produced exhibiting stable characteristics.

Electrically conducting ceramics having, as a chief crystalline phase, a perovskite crystalline phase containing La, Cr and Mg and further having, in addition to the chief crystalline phase, an oxide phase containing La, wherein when the atomic ratios among the rare earth element, Mg and Cr in said chief crystalline phase are represented by the following formula,

Electrically conducting ceramics, process for producing the same and

The present invention is an electrically conducting ceramic having improved electrical conductivity which comprises a perovskite-type composite oxide of a composition represented by the following formula

Growing community of inventors

Kokubu, Japan

Shoji Yamashita