The material of choice for a solid oxide fuel cell cathode based on a yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte is doped lanthanum manganite, (La, Sr)MnO_3. It excels at many of the attributes necessary for a system to work at the required operating temperature and is flexible enough to allow for materials optimization. Although strontium-doping increases the electronic conductivity of the material, the ionic conductivity of the material remains negligible under operating conditions. Studies have shown that the internal equilibrium of the material heavily favors oxidation of the manganese rather than the loss of lattice oxygen as a charge compensation mechanism. This lack of oxygen vacancies in the structure retards the ability of the material to conduct oxygen ions; thus the optimized system requires a large number of engineered triple point boundary locations to work efficiently. We have successfully doped the host LSM lattice to alter the internal equilibrium of the material to increase its ionic conductivity and thus lower the cathodic overpotential of the system. Our paper discusses these new materials, the results of cell tests, and a number of characterization experiments performed.
展开▼
