Over the past decades, energy engineers have been developing a wide range of new technologies that could power electronic devices, robots and electric vehicles more efficiently and reliably. These include solid oxide cells (SOCs), electrochemical devices that can operate in two different modes, as fuel cells or as electrolyzers.
Fuel cells are devices that can convert the energy in specific chemicals into electricity via chemical reactions. Electrolyzers, on the other hand, are technologies that can split water (H2O) or other molecules using electricity, to produce hydrogen (H2) or other desirable chemicals.
Most SOCs developed so far are two-dimensional (2D) and consist of flat structures with stacked layers of different materials. This 2D design, however, limits the extent to which the devices can be reduced in size while also increasing their weight, as it relies on metallic interconnects to enable the flow of energy and seal different components.
Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark recently designed new three-dimensional (3D) SOCs with a periodic surface structure known as a gyroid. These cells, outlined in a paper published in Nature Energy, can be fabricated using 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing.
"The use of gyroid structures in heat exchangers has been shown to reduce weight, improve compactness, and increase efficiency," Prof. Vincenzo Esposito, corresponding author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. "We replace the metal with an ion-conducting ceramic, thereby realizing the 3D-SOC concept. The 3D-SOC is well-suited for applications that demand lightweight construction, compactness, and stability, such as those in the aerospace and automotive industries."
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