Semiconductor-ionic membrane of LaSrCoFe-oxide-doped ceria solid oxide fuel cells

A novel semiconductor-ionic La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3-δ (LSCF)-Sm/Ca co-doped CeO 2 (SCDC) nanocomposite has been developed as a membrane, which is sandwiched between two layers of Ni 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 Li-oxide (NCAL) to construct semiconductor-ion membrane fuel cell (SIMFC). Such a device presented an open circuit voltage (OCV) above 1.0 V and maximum power density of 814 mW cm −2 at 550 °C, which is much higher than 0.84 V and 300 mW cm −2 for the fuel cell using the SCDC membrane. Moreover, the SIMFC has a relatively promising long-term stability, the voltage can maintain at 0.966 V for 60 hours without degradation during the fuel cells operation and the open-circuit voltage (OCV) can return to 1.06 V after long-term fuel cell operation. The introduction of LSCF electronic conductor into the membrane did not cause any short circuit but brought significant enhancement of fuel cell performances. The Schottky junction is proposed to prevent the internal electrons passing thus avoiding the device short circuiting problem.