MSU Technologies

Advanced Ceramic-to-Metal Brazing

Executive Summary

Joining dissimilar materials has been an area of study for many decades, with many challenges still being addressed. Our invention allows for a superior brazed joint between ceramic and metal components, with an end product that has less defects – and therefore a stronger bond – than typical brazing methods allow.

Description of Technology

The manufacturing of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) offers unique challenges, such as the need to join metals to ceramics. Additionally, due to the nature of conditions which SOFC’s operate they are subjected to environments which accelerate the degradation of brazed joints. With this in mind, MSU researchers have developed a technology that involves pre-sintering Nickel particles to form a porous metal layer on one of the substrates. This improves the wetting angle of the brazing material to not only reduce pores that occur at the bonding site, but to also improve the lifetime of the brazed system.

Key Benefits

Reduces the amount of mechanical defects
Improves lifetime of the brazed joint
SOFCs (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) offer the highest power density of known energy storage methods

Applications