Boosting performance of the solid oxide fuel cell by facile nano-tailoring of La0.6Sr0.4CoO3-d cathode

Sluggish kinetics for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the greatest challenges limiting the electrochemical performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Surface modi-fication through solution infiltration is recognized as a promising approach to boost the performance of the SOFCs. The conventional infiltration of electrocatalyst in porous scaffold results in discrete particles of active catalyst. However, in this study, we report a novel technique to produce the nano-tailored film of Sm0.5Sr0.5CO3-5 (SSC) active catalyst on to La0.6Sr0.4CoO3-5 (LSC) cathode of SOFC through controlling the drying rate during the infiltration process which resulted in a continous film like coating of SSC. The SOFC with LSC cathode containing SSC film-like nanostructure showed a two-fold performance increment and an excellent durability compared to the LSC cathode prepared through conventional methods. The higher performance of the film-like nanostructured LSC-SSC cathode is attributed to the remarkable reduction in the area-specific ohmic and polari-zation resistance due to the extension of cathode reaction sites and shorter diffusion lengths, thus, facilitating the ORR.(c) 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Controlling the drying rate enables the formation of a continuous film-like active catalyst on the cathode of solid oxide fuel cells, leading to significantly improved performance and durability of the cells.