Fabrication of (Sm, Ce)O2−δ interlayer for yttria-stabilized zirconia-based intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells

•Fabricate dense SDC interlayer on YSZ electrolyte with pulsed laser deposition.•Porous SDC interlayer was deposited with dip-coating method.•SDC interlayer with SSC cathode improves the electrochemical performance.

Application of Sm0.5Sr0.5CoO3−δ (SSC) cathode in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) has its advantage of reducing polarization loss at intermediate operating temperatures (600–800 °C). However, the SSC cathode cannot be applied directly on yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte due to the thermal mismatch and chemical reaction. In this work, Ce0.8Sm0.2O2−δ (SDC) thin interlayers are fabricated between YSZ electrolyte layers and Sm0.5Sr0.5CoO3−δ-SDC (SSC–SDC) cathode layers with dip-coating and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) methods. The 1400 °C-sintered SDC interlayer deposited by dip-coating method exhibits a porous microstructure. PLD technique yields a thin and dense SDC layer at a low substrate temperature of 600 °C and no additional peaks of (Zr, Ce)O2-based solid-solution are present. Besides, the electrochemical performance of the YSZ/SDC (electrolyte/interlayer) fuel cell has a great improvement at intermediate operating temperature.