Self-assembled Fe-doped PrBaCo2O5 thorn d composite cathodes with disorder transition region for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

PrBa(Co1-xFex)2O5+d polymorphs (0.1 < x < 0.4, denoted as PBCF-x with Fe-doping level x) are reported and dual phase of cubic phase Pr0.5Ba0.5Co1_xFexO3_d and tetragonal phase PrBa(Co1-xFex)2O5+d are co-produced through an common sol-gel method. The co-generation of the dual-phases leads to the formation of abundant hetero-interfaces be-tween the neighboring crystal phases and the synergic effect demonstrates remarkably high oxygen adsorption and dissociation ability in the air. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation establishes that the existence of hetero-interfaces promotes oxygen reduction reaction activity (ORR) which is crucial to improve cathode performance of proton-conducing solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). Moreover, an outstanding electro-chemical performance is obtained for the single cell with a PBCF03 cathode and the research demonstrates that a self-assemble dual phase cathode can be an effective approach for developing high-performing H-SOFCs.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

PBCF-x (0.1 < x < 0.4) polymorphs (PrBa(Co1-xFex)2O5+d) with dual phases of cubic Pr0.5Ba0.5Co1-xFexO3_d and tetragonal PrBa(Co1-xFex)2O5+d are produced through sol-gel method. The co-generation of dual phases results in abundant hetero-interfaces, demonstrating high oxygen adsorption and dissociation ability. The existence of hetero-interfaces promotes oxygen reduction reaction activity (ORR), essential for improving cathode performance of proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). A self-assembled dual-phase cathode proves to be an effective approach for developing high-performing H-SOFCs.