The numerous advantages of the solid oxide fuel cells with low operation temperature (LT-SOFCs) and many challenges for renewable energy appeared to be not used and these devices are still far from replacing well-established energy sources in automotive industry. Many obstacles are on the way to their commercialization and main of them is high cost of a manufacturing equipment for deposition on the porous Ni-YSZ anode of an impermeable YSZ electrolyte with thickness around 1 um. Such thickness offers a sufficient ionic conductivity around 1.0 W/cm
2 at a reduced operation temperature below 600
oC. However, a deposited thin electrolyte can inherit porosity of substrate. On other hand, clogging of pores during deposition can interrupt delivery of fuel to the anode-electrolyte interface and drain of byproducts of electro- catalytic reactions. Required performance of such film can be achieved using a method of Glanced Angle Deposition (GLAD) provided by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). Because of high cost of the PLD equipment manufacturing of the LT-SOFCs is limited just with the laboratory scale.
Nanocoating Plasma Systems Inc (NPS) challenges the expensive and low productive PLD method with an Atmospheric Vapor Deposition (AVP). Such chamber-less method uses an AP-ICP focused plasma beam designed to replace laser. The AP-ICP beam can serve as a source of directed thermal energy as well as the carrier of the focused YSZ vapor stream. Vapor is generated due to melting and vaporization of a commercial nanopowder of YSZ injected into the high temperature plasma. As the carrier of the thermal energy this beam can also provide a post-deposition sintering for transition of an amorphous layers in the nanocrystallines growing laterally in order to overlap the pores. The plasma beam with crossover with the sub- millimeter size is generated from the ICP torch sustained by the saddle RF antenna with the transversal RF magnetic field. This torch is narrowed by an aerodynamic nozzle and the ejected beam is focused by electric field between a spatial charge of dense plasma at the exit of the nozzle and a grounded extractor. Diameter of deposition spot is controlled by distance between exit of the nozzle and the extractor. It depends also on the RF power applied to the antenna and gas flow rate. Deposition in atmosphere is complicated by ambient nitrogen hindering process of nucleation. Adding of hydrogen in the argon flow and elevating of temperature of substrate mitigate such effect.