Among old materials and different approaches to enhance stability and electrochemical activity of Solid Oxide Cells

Perovskite materials are widely studied as cathode materials for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC) for their relevant properties regarding electrocatalytic activity or stability. Nevertheless, a material that combines both it is not yet available. Among them, La1-XSrxMnO3 (LSM), La1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3 (LSCF), Ba1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3 (BSCF), La1-xSrxFeO3 (LSF), La1-xBaxCoO3 (LBC), were deeply investigated but their properties are not completely exploited or optimized. In this PhD project all the reported electrode materials are investigated using different approaches. The study starts from LSM – based electrodes, which show a change in kinetic mechanism under particular operating conditions. These results open new horizons about the employment of this material, up today considered not suitable for IT-SOFC temperature range. A first application, with promising results, is proposed here with a LSM infiltration in LSCF and BSCF scaffold. The presence of infiltrated-phase enhance stability and electrochemical activity of electrodes. Promising results are obtained also by mixing BSCF and LSCF powders. Three different BSCF:LSCF ratio are considered to produce three different cathodes. All the new compositions show an improvement of activity for oxygen reduction reaction, with very competitive values of polarization resistance. Moreover, one of these new electrodes has also a lowering of degradation rate compared with reference materials In the last year of this project, other two materials are combined and their interactions investigate. LSF, providing a high stability, is coupled with LBC, which has a really high surface electrocatalytic activity. The two materials are tested in different thin film systems. When they are mixed before the sintering stage react forming a new perovskite phase (Ba0.099Sr0.297La0.594Fe0.8Co0.2O3), with a higher activity. The reaction is avoided producing a bilayer system, and the presence of LBC top layer over a LSF dense thin film drastically reduces polarization resistance, highlighting promising results.