Novel doped barium cerate–carbonate composite electrolyte material for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells

A composite of a perovskite oxide proton conductor (BaCe0.7Zr0.1Y0.2O3−δ, BCZ10Y20) and alkali carbonates (2Li2CO3:1Na2CO3, LNC) is investigated with respect to its morphology, conductivity and fuel cell performance. The morphology shows that the presence of carbonate phase improves the densification of oxide matrix. The conductivity is measured by AC impedance in air, nitrogen, wet nitrogen, hydrogen, and wet hydrogen, respectively. A sharp increase of the conductivity at certain temperature is seen, which relates to the superionic phase transition at the interface phases between oxide and carbonates. Single cell with the composite electrolyte is fabricated by dry-pressing technique, using nickel oxide as anode and lithiated nickel oxide as cathode, respectively. The cell shows a maximum power density of 957 mW cm−2 at 600 °C with hydrogen as the fuel and oxygen as the oxidant. The remarkable proton conductivity and excellent cell performance make this kind of composite material a good candidate electrolyte for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).