High Performance Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Based on Nanostructured Ceria-Based Electrolyte

Ceria based electrolyte materials have shown potential application in low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs). In this paper, Sm3+ and Nd3+ co-doped CeO2 (SNDC) and pure CeO2 are synthesized via glycine-nitrate process (GNP) and the electro-chemical properties of the nanocrystalline structure electrolyte are investigated using complementary techniques. The result shows that Sm3+ and Nd3+ have been successfully doped into CeO2 lattice, and has the same cubic fluorite structure before, and after, doping. Sm3+ and Nd3+ co-doped causes the lattice distortion of CeO2 and generates more oxygen vacancies, which results in high ionic conductivity. The fuel cells with the nanocrystalline structure SNDC and CeO2 electrolytes have exhibited excellent electrochemical performances. At 450, 500 and 550 °C, the fuel cell for SNDC can achieve an extraordinary peak power densities of 406.25, 634.38, and 1070.31 mW·cm−2, which is, on average, about 1.26 times higher than those (309.38, 562.50 and 804.69 mW·cm−2) for pure CeO2 electrolyte. The outstanding performance of SNDC cell is closely related to the high ionic conductivity of SNDC electrolyte. Moreover, the encouraging findings suggest that the SNDC can be as potential candidate in LT-SOFCs application.