This study was aimed at developing integrated fabrication process for solid oxide cells (SOFC) with radio-frequency plasma spraying (RFPS) and/or hybrid plasma spraying (HYPS). Fundamental studies concerning particle velocity and deformation of ZrO2-12 wt%Y2O3 (YSZ) showed that even the lower particle velocities in RFPS (20 m/s) and HYPS (40-70 m/s) compared with the case in direct current plasma spraying (approximately 200 m/s), were found to be sufficient for the deformation of impinging molten YSZ particles on the substrate. RFPS, however, imposed a severe limitation on the substrate position because it led to short flying distance of molten particles. In this respect, HYPS was considered to be superior than RFPS. Actually, using 75-mu-m YSZ powder, HYPS made it possible to get not only dense YSZ coating with the relative density higher than 98% but also good gas permeability lower than 5.7 x 10(-7) cm4/g.s (2500 mmH2O). Moreover, porous NiO and chemical stable LaCoO3 as electrodes could be prepared by Ar-O2 HYPS. Though the cell performance had not been investigated yet, these experimental results have proved that HYPS must be a strong candidate to open new aspects of the production process for SOFC, especially, from economical and engineering points of view.
