Application of a Triple-Conducting Heterostructure Electrolyte of Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.1Fe0.7Zr0.1Y0.1O3-δ and Ca0.04Ce0.80Sm0.16O2-δ in a High-Performance Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Sajid Rauf; Bin Zhu; M A K Yousaf Shah; Zuhra Tayyab; Sanam Attique; Nasir Ali; Naveed Mushtaq; Baoyuan Wang; Changping Yang; Muhammad Imran Asghar; Peter D Lund

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c10061

Application of a Triple-Conducting Heterostructure Electrolyte of Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.1Fe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.1O_3-δ and Ca_0.04Ce_0.80Sm_0.16O_2-δ in a High-Performance Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Aug 5;12(31):35071-35080. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c10061. Epub 2020 Jul 28.

Authors

Sajid Rauf¹, Bin Zhu², M A K Yousaf Shah³, Zuhra Tayyab¹, Sanam Attique⁴, Nasir Ali⁵, Naveed Mushtaq^{1

2}, Baoyuan Wang¹, Changping Yang¹, Muhammad Imran Asghar^{1

6}, Peter D Lund^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Hubei Collaborative Innovation Centre for Advanced Materials, Faculty of Physics and Electronic Science, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei 430062, P. R. China.
² Energy Storage Joint Research Center, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, No.2 Si Pai Lou, Nanjing 210096, P. R. China.
³ Engineering Research Centre of Nano-Geo Materials of Ministry of Education, Department of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute for Composites Science Innovation (InCSI), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
⁵ Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Devices and Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
⁶ New Energy Technologies Group, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 15100, FI-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.

PMID: 32667772
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c10061

Abstract

Dual-ion electrolytes with oxygen ion and proton-conducting properties are among the innovative solid oxide electrolytes, which exhibit a low Ohmic resistance at temperatures below 550 °C. BaCo_0.4Fe_0.4Zr_0.1Y_0.1O_3-δ with a perovskite-phase cathode has demonstrated efficient triple-charge conduction (H⁺/O^2-/e^-) in a high-performance low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (LT-SOFC). Here, we designed another type of triple-charge conducting perovskite oxide based on Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.1Fe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.1O_3-δ (BSCFZY), which formed a heterostructure with ionic conductor Ca_0.04Ce_0.80Sm_0.16O_2-δ (SCDC), showing both a high ionic conductivity of 0.22 S cm^-1 and an excellent power output of 900 mW cm^-2 in a hybrid-ion LT-SOFC. In addition to demonstrating that a heterostructure BSCFZY-SCDC can be a good functional electrolyte, the existence of hybrid H⁺/O^2- conducting species in BSCFZY-SCDC was confirmed. The heterointerface formation between BSCFZY and SCDC can be explained by energy band alignment, which was verified through UV-vis spectroscopy and UV photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). The interface may help in providing a pathway to enhance the ionic conductivities and to avoid short-circuiting. Various characterization techniques are used to probe the electrochemical and physical properties of the material containing dual-ion characteristics. The results indicate that the triple-charge conducting electrolyte is a potential candidate to further reduce the operating temperature of SOFC while simultaneously maintaining high performance.

Keywords: Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.1Fe0.7Zr0.1Y0.1O3−δ (BSCFZY) perovskite; Schottky junction; band alignment; dual-ion conductivity; semiconductor−ion heterostructure; triple-charge conduction.