Tailoring gadolinium-doped ceria-based solid oxide fuel cells to achieve 2Wcm-2 at 550°C

Low-temperature operation is necessary for next-generation solid oxide fuel cells due to the wide variety of their applications. However, significant increases in the fuel cell losses appear in the low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells, which reduce the cell performance. To overcome this problem, here we report Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95-based low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells with nanocomposite anode functional layers, thin electrolytes and core/shell fibre-structured Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3 delta-Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 cathodes. In particular, the report describes the use of the advanced electrospinning and Pechini process in the preparation of the core/shell-fibre-structured cathodes. The fuel cells show a very high performance of 2Wcm(-2) at 550 degrees C in hydrogen, and are stable for 300 h even under the high current density of 1Acm(-2). Hence, the results suggest that stable and high-performance solid oxide fuel cells at low temperatures can be achieved by modifying the microstructures of solid oxide fuel cell components.