Effect of the cathode structure on the electrochemical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

The study elementarily investigated the effect of the cathode structure on the electrochemical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells. Four single cells were fabricated with different cathode structures, and the total cathode thickness was 15, 55, 85, and 85 µm for cell-A, cell-B, cell-C, and cell-D, respectively. The cell-A, cell-B, and cell-D included only one cathode layer, which was fabricated by \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ \left( {{\text{La}}_{0.74} {\text{Bi}}_{0.10} {\text{Sr}}_{0.16} } \right){\text{MnO}}_{{3 - \delta }} $$\end{document} (LBSM) electrode material. The cathode of the cell-C was composed of a \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ \left( {{\text{La}}_{0.74} {\text{Bi}}_{0.10} {\text{Sr}}_{0.16} } \right){\text{MnO}}_{{3 - \delta }} - \left( {{\text{Bi}}_{0.7} {\text{Er}}_{0.3} {\text{O}}_{1.5} } \right) $$\end{document} (LBSM–ESB) cathode functional layer and a LBSM cathode layer. Different cathode structures leaded to dissimilar polarization character for the four cells. At 750°C, the total polarization resistance (Rp) of the cell-A was 1.11, 0.41 and 0.53 Ω cm2 at the current of 0, 400, and 800 mA, respectively, and that of the cell-B was 1.10, 0.39, and 0.23 Ω cm2 at the current of 0, 400, and 800 mA, respectively. For cell-C and cell-D, their polarization character was similar to that of the cell-B and Rp also decreased with the increase of the current. The maximum power density was 0.81, 1.01, 0.79, and 0.43 W cm−2 at 750°C for cell-D, cell-C, cell-B, and cell-A, respectively. The results demonstrated that cathode structures evidently influenced the electrochemical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells.