Zhou Yanling, Gao Yang, Chen Guichan, Jiang Mingyu, Huang Dehong, Zeng Zezhi, Zhang Yangjun, Chen Dengjie
College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
School of Vehicle and Mobility, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Green Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2025 Nov 15;698:138043. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2025.138043. Epub 2025 Jun 1.
Alkaline-earth segregation and low electronic conductivity restrict the practical applications of high-performance cathodes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs). To address these issues, a unique electrode structure with a sintered active backbone coated with an in situ-formed porous net-like PrCoO (PCO) layer is developed. The effectiveness of this strategy is demonstrated using BaSrCoFeO (BSCF), known for unprecedented oxygen reduction activity but with a great tendency to cause segregation and low electrical conductivity. This design leverages the beneficial characteristics of BSCF and PCO: the BSCF backbone provides high oxygen reduction activity, while the porous net-like PCO layer generated in situ offers high electrical conductivity. More importantly, this approach has the ability to eliminate potential surface segregation and even utilize the segregation by element interdiffusion to form a coating layer with high oxygen reduction activity. Therefore, the PCO-coated BSCF cathode (BSCF-PCO) offers impressive cell performance with a low area-specific polarization resistance of 0.02 Ω cm at 600 °C using a symmetric cell and a maximum power density of 1835 mW cm at 600 °C using an anode-supported fuel cell, which are superior to the cells with the state-of-the-art BSCF (i.e., 0.04 Ω cm and 987 mW cm). Furthermore, this strategy significantly boosts the activity of other cathode materials such as BaSrFeZnO, a typical cathode for PCFCs. This study thus provides a facile, universal in situ strategy for constructing high-performance cathodes by removing and transforming surface segregation for SOFCs and PCFCs.
碱土金属偏析和低电子电导率限制了高性能阴极在固体氧化物燃料电池（SOFC）和质子陶瓷燃料电池（PCFC）中的实际应用。为了解决这些问题，开发了一种独特的电极结构，其烧结活性骨架涂覆有原位形成的多孔网状PrCoO（PCO）层。使用以空前的氧还原活性而闻名但极易发生偏析且电导率低的BaSrCoFeO（BSCF）证明了该策略的有效性。这种设计利用了BSCF和PCO的有益特性：BSCF骨架提供高氧还原活性，而原位生成的多孔网状PCO层提供高电导率。更重要的是，这种方法能够消除潜在的表面偏析，甚至通过元素互扩散利用偏析形成具有高氧还原活性的涂层。因此，PCO涂覆的BSCF阴极（BSCF-PCO）具有令人印象深刻的电池性能，在600℃下使用对称电池时面积比极化电阻低至0.02Ω·cm，在600℃下使用阳极支撑燃料电池时最大功率密度为1835mW/cm²，优于具有最先进BSCF的电池（即0.04Ω·cm和987mW/cm²）。此外，该策略还显著提高了其他阴极材料的活性，如PCFC的典型阴极BaSrFeZnO。因此，本研究提供了一种简便、通用的原位策略，通过去除和转化表面偏析来构建用于SOFC和PCFC的高性能阴极。
