Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have the promise to improve energy efficiency and to provide society with a clean energy producing technology. The high temperature of operation (500-1000 degrees C) enables the solid oxide fuel cell to operate with existing fossil fuels and to be efficiently coupled with turbines to give very high efficiency conversion of fuels to electricity. Solid oxide fuel cells are complex electrochemical devices that contain three basic components, a porous anode, an electrolyte membrane, and a porous cathode. In this short review, a survey of the types and properties of materials that have been considered for each of these components is presented with an emphasis on the requirements for operation at intermediate temperature (500-800 degrees C). Some directions for future research are discussed.