Different ceria-based materials Gd0.1Ce0.9O2−δ and Sm0.075Nd0.075Ce0.85O2−δ for ceria-bismuth bilayer electrolyte high performance low temperature solid oxide fuel cells

Two types of ceria-bismuth bilayer films Gd0.1Ce0.9O2−δ|Er0.4Bi1.6O3 (GDC|ESB) and Sm0.075Nd0.075Ce0.85O2−δ|ESB (SNDC|ESB) assembled with ESB-La0.74Bi0.1Sr0.16MnO3−δ (ESB-LBSM) cathode are evaluated based on anode supported single cells, in order to compare and investigate the influence of different ceria-based materials GDC and SNDC with different ionic conductivity on the performance of the ceria-bismuth bilayer electrolyte films for high performance low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (HPLT-SOFCs). The single cell with GDC|ESB bilayer film outputs the maximum power density (MPD) of 895 mW cm−2 with interfacial polarization resistance (Rp) of 0.079 Ω cm2 at 650 °C. When SNDC is used, which has a much higher ionic conductivity with respect to GDC, the cell with SNDC|ESB bilayer film achieves the MPD of 930 mW cm−2 and the Rp of 0.035 Ω cm2 at the same conditions which shows better electrochemical performance. Furthermore, the SNDC|ESB bilayer film cell shows higher power output in the entire operation temperature range compared with GDC|ESB-based cell and has the MPD of 271 mW cm−2 at 500 °C which demonstrate the superiority of SNDC|ESB bilayer structure cell in LT-SOFC operations.