Electrical properties of nanocube CeO2 in advanced solid oxide fuel cells

Search for electrolyte materials with a high ionic conductivity at low temperatures has always been a key challenge for the development of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In present work, we found un-doped CeO2 nanocubes used as an electrolyte for advanced fuel cell showed remarkable performances. The CeO2 nanocubes were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal approach. The synthesized CeO2 nanocubes were used as an electrolyte sandwiched between two layers of semiconducting Ni0.8Co0.15Al0.05LiO2-δ to fabricate the fuel cell. Such device has achieved an excellent maximum power density of 406 mW cm−2 at 600 °C. These results demonstrate CeO2/CeO2-δ heterogeneous interfaces could provide a high ionic conductive path conductor for the electrolyte in SOFCs, which widen the selecting range of the electrolyte candidates for advanced SOFCs.