User:Sir Roxas/sandbox

Other Article Edits

= Solar Cell =

fixed grammar on first two images, added reference to Copper indium gallium selenide (IBM's contribution), Split Other c-Silicon to Ribbon Silicon and Mono-like-multi Silicon, numerous other grammatical edits.

=Planar Fuel Cell Design=

This article is in process as part of a writing class assignment. I will be posting it on and after that point feel free to leave comments.



Planar design for solid oxide fuel cells utilizes a specific kind of geometry created by layering the principle components of a fuel cell, the cathode, electrode and anode, as a plane (geometry). This architecture is excellent at improving the energy density of fuel cell systems due to it's tightly packed laminar design. Planar architecture also contributes easy-manufacturing processes and the possibility of making flexible fuel cells by reducing the thickness of the layers.

Fabrication Process
Planar solid oxide fuel cells are generally mass produced through conventional ceramic mass production such as tape casting and screen printing. The electrolyte is generally produced through a casting or rolling procedure, and the electrode is then printed onto it. The interconnects that allow these fuel cells to be stacked into muti-cell structures are generally made from ceramics and can also be mass-produced.

Planar Architectures
Within planar architectures, there are several unique designs that utilize different connection interfaces, or geometric arrangement. These types include Banded, Monolithic, and Membraneless Laminar Flow.

Banded


Banded planar architecture is a geometry which seeks to eliminate the resistance that interconnects generate in a typical planar architecture. The ohmic loss associated with the interconnects generally stem from it's relative thickness to the rest of the planar layers and it's electrical conductivity. This architecture is structured such that the cathode and anode of adjacent fuel cells are directly connected, rather than using an intermediate interconnect.

Monolithic


In a monolithic design the entire cell is made as one unit, all rolled or laminated together and then co-sintered (see sintering) together removing the need for high-temperature seals. The co-sintering process can be quite difficult to implement due to the different material requirements present in each layer of the fuel cell design.

Membraneless Laminar Flow


Shaegh et al. writes that "streams containing different substances with different concentrations ... flow side by side through a microchannel" This idea uses the basis of laminar flow to create a system that doesn't need an extra membrane to seperate the fluids within the same channel. This idea is used in fuel cell design when the two microfluids are the fuel and oxidant. Within a micro-channel bounded by the cathode and anode, these two fluids can effectively transfer their energy to a load. This is only possible by the effective downsizing of the system to be very small.