A micro-nano porous oxide hybrid for efficient oxygen reduction in reduced-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

Sci Rep. 2012:2:462. doi: 10.1038/srep00462. Epub 2012 Jun 15.

Abstract

Tremendous efforts to develop high-efficiency reduced-temperature (≤ 600°C) solid oxide fuel cells are motivated by their potentials for reduced materials cost, less engineering challenge, and better performance durability. A key obstacle to such fuel cells arises from sluggish oxygen reduction reaction kinetics on the cathodes. Here we reported that an oxide hybrid, featuring a nanoporous Sm(0.5)Sr(0.5)CoO(3-δ) (SSC) catalyst coating bonded onto the internal surface of a high-porosity La(0.9)Sr(0.1)Ga(0.8)Mg(0.2)O(3-δ) (LSGM) backbone, exhibited superior catalytic activity for oxygen reduction reactions and thereby yielded low interfacial resistances in air, e.g., 0.021 Ω cm(2) at 650°C and 0.043 Ω cm(2) at 600°C. We further demonstrated that such a micro-nano porous hybrid, adopted as the cathode in a thin LSGM electrolyte fuel cell, produced impressive power densities of 2.02 W cm(-2) at 650°C and 1.46 W cm(-2) at 600°C when operated on humidified hydrogen fuel and air oxidant.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Catalysis
  • Cobalt / chemistry
  • Electric Conductivity
  • Electric Power Supplies*
  • Electrochemistry / instrumentation
  • Electrochemistry / methods
  • Electrodes
  • Electrolytes / chemistry
  • Gallium / chemistry
  • Lanthanum / chemistry
  • Magnesium / chemistry
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Nanopores / ultrastructure
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Nanostructures / ultrastructure
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Oxides / chemistry*
  • Oxygen / chemistry*
  • Porosity
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Samarium / chemistry
  • Strontium / chemistry
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Electrolytes
  • Oxides
  • Cobalt
  • Samarium
  • Lanthanum
  • Gallium
  • Magnesium
  • Oxygen
  • Strontium