Electrical properties of co-doping composite ionic electrolyte conductor for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells
摘要
The new mixed ionic conductors with Sm- and/or Y-doped materials (i.e., BaCe0.8Sm0.2-xO3-δ-Ce0.8Sm0.2-yO2-δ [BCS-SDC], BaCe0.8Y0.2O3-δ-Ce0.8Y0.2O2-δ [BCY-YDC], BaCe0.8Sm0.1Y0.1O3-δ-Ce0.8Sm0.1Y0.1O2-δ [BCSY-SYDC]), as novel mixed ionic electrolyte materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), were produced in a 1:1 weight ratio by a one-step citric acid–nitrate gel combustion process. The matrix of BaCeO3-δ-based and CeO2-δ-based crystalline grains interacts in all the composite materials, and the composite electrolyte material avoids the characteristic disadvantages of BaCeO3-δ-based materials and CeO2-δ-based materials. In addition, the BCSY-SYDC composite electrolyte material exhibits mixed oxygen ionic and protonic conduction, shows the largest grain size and the highest electrical conductivity among the three composite electrolytes, e.g., the total conductivity of BCSY-SYDC at 700 °C in wet hydrogen (3 vol% H2O) reaches 3.58 × 10–2 S cm−1, which is mainly due to the increased grain size and reduced grain boundary density. Finally, the anode-supported single-cell NiO/BCSY-SYDC (anode) | BCSY-SYDC (electrolyte) | SBC-SDC (cathode) shows respectable performance and the high peak power density can reach 626.1 mW cm−2 at 700 °C. This shows a much higher open circuit value (OCV) than the single electrolyte of CeO2-δ-based materials under fuel cell conditions, indicating that BaCe0.8Sm0.1Y0.1O3-δ-Ce0.8Sm0.1Y0.1O2-δ is a promising composite electrolyte material for the solid oxide fuel cell.