Antimony doped barium strontium ferrite perovskites as novel cathodes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

•Antimony is doped to barium strontium ferrite to produce novel cathodes.•δ, TECs and σ are evaluated as a function of antimony content.•The electrochemical performance is substantially improved with antimony doping.

Antimony was doped to barium strontium ferrite to produce ferrite-based perovskites with a composition of Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe1−xSbxO3−δ (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1) as novel cathode materials for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs). The perovskite properties including oxygen nonstoichiometry (δ), mean valence of B-site, tolerance factors, thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) and electrical conductivity (σ) are explored as a function of antimony content. By defect chemistry analysis, the TECs decrease since the variable oxygen vacancy concentration is decreased by Sb doping, and σ decreases with x due to the reduced charge concentration of Fe4+ content. Consequently, the electrochemical performance was substantially improved and the interfacial polarization resistance was reduced from 0.213 to 0.120 Ωcm2 at 700 °C with Sb doping. The perovskite with x = 1.0 is suggested as the most promising composition as SOFC cathode material.