Micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFC) have recently attracted
increasing attention due to their advantages, such as quick start-up/shut-down, high
volumetric power density and better mobile/portable characteristics comparing
favorably with planar and tubular SOFCs. Basically, there are four fabrication
techniques to prepare MT-SOFCs: extrusion, cold isostatic pressing, slip-casting and
phase-inversion. Among these techniques, the phase inversion method is a recently
emerging technology to prepare the MT-SOFCs, which can be easily scaled up to
realize an automatic and continuous preparation process. Therefore, this chapter gives a
detailed account of the fabrication skills of micro-tubular SOFCs based on the phaseinversion
techniques and the brief review of their performance test results.
Keywords: Ceramic membranes, Co-spinning, Dual-layer, Hollow fibre,
Microtubular, Mobile, Phase inversion, Portable, Quick start-up/shut-down, Solid
oxide fuel cells.