Single cell with metal plate, fuel cell stack, and method for producing single cell with metal plate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10186715-B2
Application number	US-201415101063-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2014
Priority date	Dec 20, 2013
Publication date	Jan 22, 2019
Grant date	Jan 22, 2019

Abstract

A metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit according to one aspect of the present invention includes a single cell element having a solid electrolyte and fuel and air electrodes disposed on opposite sides of the solid electrolyte and a metal plate bonded by a brazing material to the single cell element. The metal plate contains Ti and Al and has an Al—Ti-containing oxide layer present on a surface of the metal plate, an Al oxide film present on a surface of the Al—Ti-containing oxide layer and a Ti-containing phase apart from a part of a surface of the Al oxide film in contact with the brazing material while being present on a remaining part of the surface of the Al oxide film. The metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit has a Ti reaction phase formed at an interface between the solid electrolyte and the brazing material.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit, comprising:
a single cell element having a solid electrolyte, a fuel electrode disposed on one side of the solid electrolyte and an air electrode disposed on the other side of the solid electrolyte; and
a metal plate bonded by a brazing material to the single cell element so as to be in contact with at least the solid electrolyte,
wherein the metal plate contains 0.05 to 1 mass % of Ti and 2 to 10 mass % of Al based on a total mass of the metal plate, and has an Al—Ti-containing oxide layer present on a surface of the metal plate, an Al oxide film present on a surface of the Al—Ti-containing oxide layer and a Ti-containing phase apart from a part of a surface of the Al oxide film in contact with the brazing material while being present on a remaining part of the surface of the Al oxide film; and
wherein the metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit has a Ti reaction phase formed at an interface between the solid electrolyte and the brazing material.

2. The metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit according to claim 1 , wherein the metal plate serves as a separator to separate a space around the fuel cell from a space around the air electrode.

3. The metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit according to claim 1 , wherein the brazing material contains at least one kind selected from the group consisting of Ag, Au, Pd and Pt.

4. A fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of the metal plate-bonded single fuel cell units according to claim 1 .

5. A method for producing the metal plate-bonded single fuel cell unit according to claim 1 , comprising:
bonding the metal plate to the single cell element by the brazing material; and
before the bonding, heat-treating the metal plate in a temperature range of 900 to 1200° C.

Assignees

• Ngk Spark Plug Co

Inventors

• Okuyama Yasuo
• Kuribayashi Makoto
• Ikeda Etsuya

Classifications

• H01M2008/1293

  Fuel cells with solid oxide electrolytes · CPC title

• H01M8/0206 Primary

  Metals or alloys · CPC title

• H01M8/1213

  characterised by the electrode/electrolyte combination or the supporting material · CPC title

• H01M8/2432

  Grouping of unit cells of planar configuration · CPC title

• H01M8/0297

  Arrangements for joining electrodes, reservoir layers, heat exchange units or bipolar separators to each other (H01M8/0271 takes precedence) · CPC title