Highly Active and Stable Cu-Based Anode Decorated with In Situ Fabricated CuFe Alloy Nanoparticles for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Uniformly distributed CuFe bimetallic alloy (CFA) nanoparticle-decorated Ruddlesden–Popper (RP) structure PrSr(Cu,Fe) 0.9 Mn 0.1 O 4-δ perovskite (RP-PSCFM-CFA) had been synthesized by in situ annealing cubic perovskite Pr 0.5 Sr 0.5 Cu 0.1 Fe 0.8 Mn 0.1 O 3-δ in a wet H 2 atmosphere at 800 °C. The precipitated nanoparticles effectively improved the electrochemical properties of the RP-PSCFM-CFA when it was used as the solid oxide fuel cell anode. The La 0.8 Sr 0.2 Ga 0.83 Mg 0.17 O 3−δ electrolyte-supported single cell can reach maximum power densities of 0.996 and 0.410 W cm –2 in H 2 and C 3 H 8 at 800 °C, respectively. Moreover, the single cell showed a superior stable performance in C 3 H 8 at 800 °C with a constant current density of 0.8 A cm –2, indicating that the RP-PSCFM-CFA anode has an excellent catalytic capacity and certain anticarbon performance. This study offers the possibility of further extensive development of Cu-based perovskite anodes.