Interface engineering of bi-layer semiconductor SrCoSnO3-δ-CeO2-δ heterojunction electrolyte for boosting the electrochemical performance of low-temperature ceramic fuel cell

M. A.K.Yousaf Shah, Zuhra Tayyab, Sajid Rauf, Muhammad Yousaf, Naveed Mushtaq, Muhammad Ali Imran, Peter D. Lund, Muhammad Imran Asghar*, Bin Zhu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)
135 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

A comparative study is performed to investigate the electrochemical performance of the low-temperature ceramic fuel cells (CFCs) utilizing two different novel electrolytes. First, a perovskite semiconductor SrCo0.3Sn0.7O3-δ was used as an electrolyte in CFCs due to its modest ionic conductivity (0.1 S/cm) and demonstrated an acceptable power density of 360 mW/cm2 at 520 °C. The performance of the cell was primarily limited due to the moderate ionic transport in the electrolyte. In order to improve the ionic conductivity, a new strategy of using a novel bi-layer electrolyte concept consist of SrCo0.3Sn0.7O3-δ and CeO2-δ in CFCs. These bi-layers of two electrolytes have successfully established heterojunction which considerably improved the ionic conductivity (0.2 S/cm) and enhance the open-circuit voltage of the cell from 0.98 V to 1.001 V. Moreover, the CFCs utilizing bi-layer electrolyte have produced a remarkable power density of 672 mW/cm2 at 520 °C. This enhancement of ionic conduction, power density and blockage of electron conduction in the bi-layer electrolyte was studied via band alignment mechanism based on proposed p-n heterojunction. Our work presents a promising methodology for developing advanced low-temperature CFC electrolytes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)33969-33977
Number of pages9
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume46
Issue number68
Early online date2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2021
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Bi-layer electrolyte
  • Built-in electric field
  • Ceramic fuel cell
  • Semiconductor heterojunction

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