An active functional layer for carbon-tolerant anode of intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells

A highly active anode functional layer NiTiO3-Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (NTO-SDC) is proposed to improve electrochemical performance of intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) with carbon-tolerant Ni-TiO2−δ anode. When exposing to the H2 atmosphere, NTO in both anode support and anode functional layer can be totally reduced to Ni and TiO2−δ. Meanwhile, a small amount of Sm2Ti2O7 pyrochlore structure phase owning acceptable oxygen-ion conduction can be observed after high temperature sintering at 1250 °C. Maximum power densities of anode-supported NTO/NTO-SDC/SDC/La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ (LSCF)-SDC single cells, are 338 mWcm−2 and 223 mWcm−2 with wet H2 and methane fuels at 700 °C, respectively. Short-time stability test for anode-supported cells with NTO-SDC anode functional layer shows no obvious degradation with discharging at 0.5 V in wet methane fuel. Preliminary results have demonstrated that fabricating an anode functional layer of NTO-SDC is a facile and efficient strategy to improve electrochemical performance of IT-SOFCs with carbon-tolerant anode.