Performance enhancement of solution impregnated nanostructured La0.8Sr0.2Co0.8Ni0.2O3-δ oxygen electrode for intermediate temperature solid oxide electrolysis cells

• Nanostructured LSCN-GDC oxygen electrodes are prepared by impregnation for SOEC.
• LSCN-GDC oxygen electrodes present great enhancement for OER.
• Nanoparticle LSCN on GDC scaffold can improve the active reaction sites.
• Hydrogen production rate of 484 mL cm−2h−1 at 750 °C is obtained on the electrode.

Nanostructured La0.8Sr0.2Co0.8Ni0.2O3-δ (LSCN) based Gd2O3-doped CeO2 (GDC) oxygen electrodes are prepared by impregnation method for intermediate temperature solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) for efficient hydrogen production. The microstructure features and the electrochemical performance of the impregnated LSCN-GDC oxygen electrodes with various LSCN loadings are evaluated and investigated. Electrochemical tests show that the impregnated LSCN-GDC oxygen electrodes present great enhancement of oxygen evolution performance, due to the good nanoparticle LSCN dispersion on the GDC scaffold surface to maximize the active reaction sites. The cell with 30 wt% LSCN loaded LSCN-GDC as the oxygen electrode presents a polarization resistance of 0.072 Ω cm2 at 800 °C with 60 vol% absolute humidity (AH), only about half of that for the screen-printed LSCN electrode. The hydrogen production rate is 484 mL cm−2 h−1 at 750 °C at 1.5 V with 60 vol%AH. For stability test in galvanostatic SOEC operation up to 100 h, the solution impregnated cell shows a very stable performance without obvious degradation.