Lei Bi

A novel ionic diffusion strategy to fabricate high-performance anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with proton-conducting Y-doped BaZrO3 films

A stable Y-doped BaZrO3 electrolyte film, which showed a good performance in proton-conducting SOFCs, was successfully fabricated using a novel ionic diffusion strategy.

Y-doped BaZrO3 as a chemically stable electrolyte for proton-conducting solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs)

A proton-conducting solid oxide electrolysis cell using an Y-doped BaZrO3 electrolyte film, which has been demonstrated to be chemically stable, was successfully fabricated for the first time and showed a promising electrolysis performance.

A high performance cathode for proton conducting solid oxide fuel cells

Intermediate temperature solid-oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) ), as one of the energy conversion devices, have attracted worldwide interest for their great fuel efficiency, low air pollution, much reduced cost and excellent longtime stability. In the intermediate temperature range (500–700 °C), SOFCs based on proton conducting electrolytes (PSOFCs) display unique advantages over those based on oxygen ion conducting electrolytes. A key obstacle to the practical operation of past P-SOFCs is the poor stability of the traditionally used composite cathode materials in the steam-containing atmosphere and their low contribution to proton conduction. Here we report the identification of a new Ruddlesden–Popper-type oxide Sr3Fe2O7−δ that meets the requirements for much improved long-term stability and shows a superior single-cell performance. With a Sr3Fe2O7−δ-5 wt% BaZr0.3Ce0.5Y0.2O3−δ cathode, the P-SOFC exhibits high power densities (683 and 583 mW cm−2 at 700 °C and 650 °C, respectively) when operated with humidified hydrogen as the fuel and air as the cathode gas. More importantly, no decay in discharging was observed within a 100 hour test.

High performance ceria–bismuth bilayer electrolyte low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs) fabricated by combining co-pressing with drop-coating

A Sm0.075Nd0.075Ce0.85O2−δ–Er0.4Bi1.6O3 bilayer structured film, which showed an encouraging performance in LT-SOFCs, was successfully fabricated by a simple low cost technique combining one-step co-pressing with drop-coating.

The effect of oxygen transfer mechanism on the cathode performance based on proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells

Two types of proton-blocking composites, La2NiO4+δ–LaNi0.6Fe0.4O3−δ (LNO–LNF) and Sm0.2Ce0.8O2−δ–LaNi0.6Fe0.4O3−δ (SDC–LNF), were evaluated as cathode materials for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs) based on the BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.2O3−δ (BZCY) electrolyte, in order to compare and investigate the influence of two different oxygen transfer mechanism on the performance of the cathode for H-SOFCs. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the chemical compatibility of the components in both compounds was excellent up to 1000 °C. Electrochemical studies revealed that LNO–LNF showed lower area specific polarization resistances in symmetrical cells and better electrochemical performance in single cell tests. The single cell with LNO–LNF cathode generated remarkable higher maximum power densities (MPDs) and lower interfacial polarization resistances (Rp) than that with SDC–LNF cathode. Correspondingly, the MPDs of the single cell with the LNO–LNF cathode were 490, 364, 266, 180 mW cm−2 and the Rp were 0.103, 0.279, 0.587, 1.367 Ω cm2 at 700, 650, 600 and 550 °C, respectively. Moreover, after the single cell with LNO–LNF cathode optimized with an anode functional layer (AFL) between the anode and electrolyte, the power outputs reached 708 mW cm−2 at 700 °C. These results demonstrate that the LNO–LNF composite cathode with the interstitial oxygen transfer mechanism is a more preferable alternative for H-SOFCs than SDC–LNF composite cathode with the oxygen vacancy transfer mechanism.