Titanium-substituted ferrite perovskite: An excellent sulfur and coking tolerant anode catalyst for SOFCs

Efficient and direct utilization of hydrocarbon fuel in a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFCs) is highly desirable. However, the carbon deposition and contaminants poisoning issue should be overcome. In this work, we developed a titanium-doped (La,Sr)FeO3 ceramic oxide (LSFT) anode which integrates the advantage of high durability of titanate perovskite and super electrocatalytic activity of ferrite-based perovskite for methane-fueled SOFCs with H2S impurity. Its electrocatalytic activity and operational durability in H-2 with various H2S contents and humidified CH4 fuel were systematically investigated. We found that the LSFT perovskite oxide anode showed acceptable activity and durability toward methane direct oxidation, and excellent coke and sulfur tolerance up to 750 ppm, making it a promising electrocatalyst for direct use of hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas in high-temperature SOFCs.