One-Step Infiltration of Mixed Conducting Electrocatalysts for Reducing Cathode Polarization of a Commercial Cathode-Supported SOFC

Abstract

Infiltrating fine-grained electrocatalyst particles of either ion conducting or mixed electron and ion conducting (MEIC) material into a ceramic porous electrode scaffold has proven a very effective way to improve electrode performance for low to intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). We report here one-step infiltration of MEIC fine particles, La0.6Sr0.4CoO3-δ (LSCo) and SrCo0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (SCF), into a commercial cathode substrate. A comparative study shows that the cathode polarization can be considerably reduced by a factor of 17 to 28 and 28 to 49 from 1000 to 700 ◦ C by the infiltrated LSCF and SCF electrocatalysts, respectively, demonstrating an effective solution to improve the electrode performance without altering mechanical properties of the electrode substrate.