Enabling fast ionic transport in CeO2-La1-2 xBaxBixFeO3 nanocomposite electrolyte for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell application

Nusrat Shaheen; Zheng Chen; Muneerah Alomar; Tao Su; Yumei Nong; Nada Althubaiti; Muhammad Yousaf; Yuzheng Lu; Qiang Liu

doi:10.1039/d3ra01698f

Enabling fast ionic transport in CeO₂-La_{1-2 x}Ba_xBi_xFeO₃ nanocomposite electrolyte for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell application

RSC Adv. 2023 Jul 10;13(30):20663-20673. doi: 10.1039/d3ra01698f. eCollection 2023 Jul 7.

Authors

Nusrat Shaheen^{1

2}, Zheng Chen^{1

2}, Muneerah Alomar³, Tao Su^{1

2}, Yumei Nong^{1

2}, Nada Althubaiti³, Muhammad Yousaf⁴, Yuzheng Lu⁵, Qiang Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, Guangxi University Nanning 530004 PR China chenzheng@gxu.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of China Ministry of Education, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Guangxi University Nanning 530004 China.
³ Department of Physics, College of Sciences, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University P. O. Box 84428 Riyadh 11671 Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Energy Storage Joint Research Center, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University No. 2 Si Pai Lou Nanjing 210096 China.
⁵ College of Electronic and Engineering, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University Nanjing 211171 China qiangliu@njxzu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that electrolyte ionic conductivity plays a pivotal role in reducing the operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In this regard, nanocomposite electrolytes have drawn significant attention owing to their enhanced ionic conductivity and fast ionic transport. In this study, we fabricated CeO₂-La_1-2xBa_xBi_xFeO₃ nanocomposites and tested them as a high-performance electrolyte for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs). The prepared samples were characterized by their phase structure, surface, and interface property via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), followed by being applied in SOFCs to examine their electrochemical performance. In the fuel cells, it was found that the optimal composition 90CeO₂-10La_1-2xBa_xBi_xFeO₃ electrolyte-based SOFC delivered a peak power density of 834 mW cm^-2 along with an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.04 V at 550 °C. A comparative study revealed that the nanocomposite electrolyte exhibited a total conductivity of 0.11 S cm^-1 at 550 °C. Moreover, the rectification curve manifested the formation of the Schottky junction, suppressing the electronic conduction. This study conclusively shows that the addition of La_1-2xBa_xBi_xFeO₃ (LBBF) into ceria electrolyte is a viable approach for constructing high-performance electrolytes for LT-SOFCs.