Mechanisms of Performance Degradation of (La,Sr)(Co,Fe)O_3-δSolid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathodes

Abstract

Symmetric cells with porous La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3-δ (LSCF) electrodes on Gd 0.1 Ce 0.9 O 1.95 (GDC) electrolytes were aged at 800 • C for 800 hours in ambient air. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements performed periodically at 700 • C showed a continuous increase of the polarization resistance from 0.15 to 0.34 · cm 2 . Three-dimensional (3D) tomographic analysis using focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) showed negligible changes due to the ageing, suggesting that the observed resistance increase was not caused by electrode morphological evolution. However, an increased amount, by a factor of 3, of a water-soluble Sr rich surface phase on the aged LSCF electrode was detected by an etching procedure coupled with inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The electrochemical analysis in combination with the microstructural parameters determined by FIB-SEM was used to examine the effect of Sr segregation on the rate of oxygen surface exchange, based on the Adler-Lane-Steele (ALS) model. 1-6However, a number of MIEC materials including LSCF exhibit Sr surface segregation, which has been proposed to hinder the oxygen surface exchange process. [7][8][9][10][11] This is believed to be an important issue for the stability of advanced SOFCs utilizing MIEC cathodes. Still, most of the Sr segregation observations have been made on thin film samples, where it is straightforward to measure surface composition using techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS).12-15 Recently Rupp et al. 16 reported a novel technique utilizing chemical etching with on-line inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) detection to successfully quantify Sr-rich surface phases on dense La 0.6 Sr 0.4 CoO 3-δ (LSC) thin films. There is only one report of a measurement of a practical porous LSCF electrode that showed Sr segregation, measured via XPS, along with electrochemical performance degradation. 11The distinction between thin film and bulk electrode samples is potentially important. Thin films are often characterized by columnar growth with very high grain boundary densities, they may exhibit significant stress, and the thermal history is usually very different from that of porous electrodes (preparation mostly below 800• C). Although the measured properties of well-prepared polycrystalline thin-film electrodes normally agree reasonably well with values from bulk materials, 17 in some cases such as epitaxial thin film electrodes, properties may deviate significantly.18 Also, SOFC stacks with LSCF cathodes have been shown to provide reasonably stable long-term performance, 19 an observation that appears to be at odds with the Sr segregation and related degradation observed for thin-film LSCF.In this work, we investigated the degradation mechanisms, especially Sr surface segregation, of porous LSCF cathodes. LSCF symmetric-electrode cells with Gd 0.1 Ce 0.9 ...

The Effects of Constriction Factor and Geometric Tortuosity on Li‐Ion Transport in Porous Solid‐State Li‐Ion Electrolytes

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Influence of the electrode/electrolyte interface structure on the performance of Pr 0.8 Sr 0.2 Fe 0.7 Ni 0.3 O 3-δ as Solid Oxide Fuel Cell cathode

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The synergistic effect of cobalt oxide and Gd-CeO2 dual infiltration in LSCF/CGO cathodes

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