Preparation and performance evaluation of low temperature SOEC using lithium compounds as electrodes

Previous studies have found that in ceramic fuel cells using Ni0·8Co0·15Al0·05LiO2 (NCAL) as the electrode, lithium compounds such as LiOH generated by reduction of NCAL anode by H2 diffuse into oxide electrolyte membranes such as Gd0.1Ce0·9O2 (GDC), and the "GDC-lithium compounds" composite electrolyte formed online is an excellent proton conductor. In this paper, the low-temperature electrolysis performance of proton conductor type solid oxide electrolysis cell (P-SOEC) with GDC as electrolyte and NCAL as electrode for direct electrochemical conversion of H2O into H2 was investigated. It is found that at operation temperature of 550 °C, the current density of the SOEC prepared in this paper can reach 2.263 A cm−2 at 1.6 V. The composite electrolyte in the electrolysis cell reaches an ionic conductivity of 0.572 S cm−1 in the SOEC mode. The excellent hydrogen production performance proves that this new type of electrolysis cell with lithium compounds as electrodes is a promising and potential proton conductive low-temperature SOEC.