A New High-Performance Proton-Conducting Electrolyte for Next-Generation Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Conventional solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are operable at high temperatures (700-1000 degrees C) with the most commonly used electrolyte, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). SOFC research and development activities have thus been carried out to reduce the SOFC operating temperature. At intermediate temperatures (400-700 degrees C), barium cerate (BaCeO3) and barium zirconate (BaZrO3) are good candidates for use as proton-conducting electrolytes due to their promising electrochemical characteristics. Herein, two widely studied proton-conducting materials with two dopants are combined and an attractive composition for the investigation of electrochemical behaviors is discovered. Ba0.9Sr0.1Ce0.5Zr0.35Y0.1Sm0.05O3-delta(BSCZYSm), a perovskite-type polycrystalline material, has shown very promising properties to be used as proton-conducting electrolyte at intermediate temperature range. BSCZYSm shows a high proton conductivity of 4.167 x 10(-3) S cm(-1)in a wet argon atmosphere and peak power density of 581.7 mW cm(-2)in Ni-BSCZYSm | BSCZYSm | BSCF cell arrangement at 700 degrees C, which is one of the highest in comparison with proton-conducting electrolyte-based fuel cells reported until now.