Characterisation of Novel Anodes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Based on Oxygen-Excess Perovskite Related Structures

Mixed oxides belonging to the La(2)Sr(n-2)TinO(3n+1) family have been targeted as potential materials for high performance anodes in fuel cells. The most important feature of these ompounds is the existence of excess oxygen along preferential directions. Substitution by lower valence cations might lead to a removal of this excess oxygen along preferential directions and therefore possibly increase the potential for ionic conductivity. High total conductivity (>1 S.cm(-1)) was found after reduction for some compounds within this family of compounds. The activation energy varied with the structure and the more disordered the structure (thicker perovskite blocks), the lower the activation energy was found.