Regulation of Cathode Mass and Charge Transfer by Structural 3D Engineering for Protonic Ceramic Fuel Cell at 400 °C. (8th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bian, Wenjuan; Wu, Wei; Gao, Yipeng; Gomez, Joshua Y.; Ding, Hanping; Tang, Wei; Zhou, Meng; Ding, Dong
• Is Part Of: Advanced functional materials. Volume 31:Number 33(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-06-08
• Subjects: 3D engineering -- oxygen reduction reaction -- protonic ceramic fuel cells -- mass transfer -- charge transfer; Materials -- Periodicals; Chemical vapor deposition -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202102907
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1616-301X

Abstract

Abstract: Lowering the operating temperature (ideally below 400 °C) for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology deployment has been an important transition that introduces the benefit of reduced operational costs and system durability. However, the key technical issue limiting the transition is the sluggish cathodic performance, namely the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) rate of the conventional sponge‐like cathode dramatically drops as the temperature reduces. In this paper, 3D engineering of a cathode is conducted on a protonic ceramic fuel cell to obtain an enhanced ORR between 400 and 600 °C. Compared with a cell using a conventional sponge‐like cathode, 3D engineering improves the cathode ORR by 41% at 400 °C with a peak power density of 0.410 W cm −2 . A phase field simulation is applied to assist the engineering by understanding the competition between the cathode mass and charge transfer with different cathode porosities. The results show that structural engineering of existing well‐developed cathodes is a simple and effective method to promote cathode ORR for low temperature SOFC by regulating the mass and charge transfer. Abstract : Cathode structural engineering by integrating a 3D engineered electrode is conducted on a proton‐conducting fuel cell (PCFC) to enhance oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics below 600 °C. Owing to the phase filed simulation, this method is proven to be effective by balancing charge and mass transfer for ORR, resulting in the superior PCFC performance (0.41 W cm −2 ) at 400 °C.