Nanostructured La0.5Ba0.5CoO3 as cathode for solid oxide fuel cells

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable, simple synthesis method for nanostructured La0.5Ba0.5CoO3 cathodes, demonstrating improved electrochemical performance in solid oxide fuel cells by reducing crystallite size.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable, straightforward synthesis technique for nanostructured cathodes that enhances SOFC performance without sophisticated deposition methods.

Findings

Reduced crystallite size improves electrochemical performance.

Achieved area specific resistance of 0.2 Wcm2 at 700°C.

Performance comparable to advanced deposition-based cathodes.

Abstract

A simple method has been used to synthesize nanostructured La0.5Ba0.5CoO3 (LBCO) powders, by confining chemical precursors into the pores of polycarbonate filters. The proposed method allows us to obtain powders formed by crystallites of different sizes, it is scalable and does not involve the use of sophisticated deposition techniques. The area specific polarization resistance of symmetrical cells was studied to analyze the electrochemical behavior of the LBCO nanostructures as cathodes for Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells. We show that the performance is improved by reducing the size of the crystallites, obtaining area specific resistance values of 0.2 Wcm2 at 700C, comparable with newly developed cathodes using novel deposition techniques.