Enhanced Anode Performance and Coking Resistance by In Situ Exsolved Multiple-Twinned Co-Fe Nanoparticles for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.

The broad and large-scale application of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) technology hinges significantly on the development of highly active and robust electrode materials. Here, Ni-free anode materials decorated with metal nanoparticles are synthesized by in situ reduction of Fe-doping Sr2CoMo1-xFexO6-δ (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1) double perovskite oxides under a reducing condition at 850 °C. The exsolved nanoparticles from the Sr2CoMo0.95Fe0.05O6-δ (SCMF0.05) lattice are Co-Fe alloys with rich multiple-twinned defects, significantly enhancing the catalytic activity of the SCMF0.05 anode toward the oxidation of H2 and CH4. The electrolyte-supported single cell with the reuduced SCMF0.05 anode reaches peak power densities as high as 992.9 and 652.3 mW cm-2 in H2 and CH4 at 850 °C, respectively, while maintaining superior stability (∼50 h at 700 °C). The reduced SCMF0.05 anode also demonstrates excellent coking resistance in CH4, which can be attributed to the increased oxygen vacancies due to Fe doping and the effective catalysis of multiple-twinned Co-Fe alloy nanoparticles for reforming of CH4 to H2 and CO. The findings in this work may provide a new insight for the design of highly active and durable anode catalysts in SOFCs.

La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ/CeO2 Heterostructured Composite Nanofibers as a Highly Active and Robust Cathode Catalyst for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.

The lack of highly active and robust catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the intermediate temperatures significantly hinders the commercialization of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Here, we report a novel heterostructured composite nanofiber cathode composed of La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) and CeO2 nanoparticles, synthesized by using a coaxial electrospinning technique, which exhibits remarkably enhanced ORR activity and durability as compared to single LSCF powder and nanofibers. This cathode achieves a polarization resistance of 0.031 Ω cm2 at 700 °C, approximately 1/5 of that for the LSCF powder cathode (0.158 Ω cm2). Such enhancement can be attributed to the continuous paths provided by nanofibers for efficient mass/charge transport and the interdiffusion of La and Ce at the heterointerface which leads to more oxygen vacancy formation. Furthermore, the anode-supported cell with the LSCF/CeO2 composite cathode shows excellent stability (0.4 V for ∼200 h at 600 °C) because of suppression of Sr segregation in LSCF by introducing CeO2 and the structure of heterogeneous nanofibers. These results indicate that the microstructure design of this heterostructured composite nanofiber for LSCF/CeO2 is extremely effective for enhancing ORR activity and stability. This finding may provide a new strategy for the microstructure design of highly active and robust ORR catalysts in SOFCs.