Synergetic Interaction of Additive Dual Nanocatalysts to Accelerate Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Fuel Cell Cathodes

The sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the cathode is hindering the power density of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Infiltration of catalyst into the cathode of SOFCs is promising to accelerate the ORR. However, the degradation associated with the coarsening of the nanocatalyst is intense. To stabilize the catalyst, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is employed to coat a dual electrocatalyst consisting of a superjacent 2 nm CoOx layer and superjacent 3 nm discrete Pt particles into the porous lanthanum strontium manganite (LSM)/yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) cathode. After 504 h of operation at 750 °C, the ALD coating resulted in the peak power density enhancement by ∼200%, while CoOx becomes Mn-enriched (MnCo)Ox nanograins coupling with nano-Pt. The Pt/(MnCo)Ox nanocouplings are uniformly distributed on the YSZ grain surface, triple-phase boundaries, and at LSM/LSM surface grain boundaries. This study demonstrates an effective approach of stabilizing the minute amount of catalyst for enhancing ORR activity at elevated temperatures.