Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction Kinetics in Nanocrystalline IT-SOFC Cathodes

Solid oxide fuel cell performance is usually limited by high cathodic area specific resistance (ASR) at intermediate temperatures (500-700°C). ASR can be decreased by reducing particle size to nanometer range. This improvement is usually ascribed to the area/volume ratio increase and a higher concen...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Baque, Laura Cecilia, Soldati, Analía Leticia, Troiani, Horacio Esteban, Schreiber, Anja, Caneiro, Alberto, Serquis, Adriana Cristina
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2013
Country:Argentina
Institution:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repository:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/11292
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/11292
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
Cathode
Lscf
Fib-Tem
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2
Description
Summary:Solid oxide fuel cell performance is usually limited by high cathodic area specific resistance (ASR) at intermediate temperatures (500-700°C). ASR can be decreased by reducing particle size to nanometer range. This improvement is usually ascribed to the area/volume ratio increase and a higher concentration of active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Nevertheless, this solely explanation seems not to be enough for explaining the high electrochemical performance of some nanostructured La0.4Sr0.6Co0.8Fe0.2O3-d cathodes previously reported (Baqué et al., Electrochemistry Comm. 10 (2008) 1905-1908). Accordingly, the ORR of these cathodes was studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) under air and under pure oxygen within the 400-700°C range. The nanostructure was characterized even at atomic level by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), revealing that the cathode is composed of nanocrystals surrounded by zones with some degree of crystalline disorder. These results suggest that this kind of nanostructure facilitate the ORR in this compound.