Co-synthesis of LSCFN-GDC electrode for symmetric solid oxide fuel cell running on propane

In this study one step co-synthesis method is investigated to prepare La0.4Sr0.6Co0.2Fe0.7Nb0.1O3-delta Gd0.1Ce0.9O2-delta (LSCFN-GDC), with the purpose of developing a facile and optimized electrode fabrication procedure for Zirconia electrolyte based symmetric solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The co-synthesized LSCFN-GDC shows distinct co-existence of perovskite and fluorite structure with high chemical compatibility and remarkable optimized electrode microstructure compared with the physical mixing one. The particle size of both LSCFN and GDC are obviously decreased and the electrode porosity is increased using the co-synthesized method. As a result, the polarization resistance of LSCFN-GDC electrode is dramatically decreased to 0.022 Omega.cm(2), compared with 0.051 U cm(2) of the physical mixing one, at 850 similar to C in air. Symmetrical single cells with a configuration of LSCFN-GDC parallel to GDC vertical bar YSZ vertical bar GDC parallel to LSCFN-GDC are successfully fabricated and characterized under various fuels of H-2, CH4 and C3H8. Results show that, the maximum power densities are discovered to be 348mW.cm(-2) and 324mW.cm(-2) at 850 degrees C under room temperature humidified hydrogen and propane, respectively, yielding a tremendous cell performance improvement. Moreover, the long-term operation of such symmetrical single cell is demonstrated to be stable for more than 100 h under both hydrogen and propane. (c) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.