Proton ceramic fuel
cells (PCFCs) are an emerging clean energy
technology; however, a key challenge persists in improving the electrolyte
proton conductivity, e.g., around 10–3–10–2 S cm–1 at 600 °C for the well-known
BaZr0.8Y0.2O3 (BZY), that is far
below the required 0.1 S cm–1. Herein, we report
an approach for tuning BZY from low bulk to high interfacial conduction
by introducing a semiconductor CeO2−δ forming
a semiconductor–ionic heterostructure CeO2−δ/BZY. The interfacial conduction was identified by a significantly
higher conductivity obtained from the BZY grain boundary than that
of the bulk and a further improvement from the CeO2−δ/BZY which achieved a remarkably high proton conductivity of 0.23
S cm–1. This enabled a high peak power of 845 mW
cm–2 at 520 °C from a PCFC using the CeO2−δ/BZY as the electrolyte, in strong contrast
to the BZY bulk conduction electrolyte with only 229 mW cm–2. Furthermore, the CeO2−δ/BZY fuel cell was
operated under water electrolysis mode, exhibiting a very high current
density output of 3.2 A cm–2 corresponding to a
high H2 production rate, under 2.0 V at 520 °C. The
band structure and a built-in-field-assisted proton transport mechanism
have been proposed and explained. This work demonstrates an efficient
way of tuning the electrolyte from low bulk to high interfacial proton
conduction to attain sufficient conductivity required for PCFCs, electrolyzers,
and other advanced electrochemical energy technologies.