Enhanced performance and endurance of nano-porous platinum solid oxide fuel cell electrodes by oxygen partial pressure cycling

We demonstrate that alternating the oxygen partial pressure gradient across a yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte membrane prior to solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) testing with nanoporous Pt electrodes greatly increases (e.g. by >70-fold at 350 degrees C) peak power density compared with devices without pretreatment. Transiently altering the oxygen activity at the cathode-YSZ interface appears to change the wetting characteristics of the nanoporous Pt, significantly affecting the stability and low-temperature performance of the SOFCs. Image analysis and impedance spectroscopy results suggest that an increase in triple-phase boundary area fraction at the cathode-YSZ interface contributes to the observed effect.