A commercial lithium battery LiMn-oxide for fuel cell applications

•Commercial lithium battery electrode for fuel cell application.•Comprehensive study of fuel cell with electrolyte and without electrolyte separator.•Nanocomposite approach improves the device performance.

Hereby we report first a commercial lithium battery LiMn-oxide (LMO) positive electrode material for fuel cell applications. The obtained LMO can be used for both anode and cathode in a three-layer fuel cell, but displays low electro-catalytic activity and power output. Using a nanocomposite approach we have significantly improved the cell performance from tens mW cm−2 up to 210 mW cm−2, which is technically useful for low temperature (bellow 600 °C) ceramic fuel cells. We also constructed single-layer fuel cell using the LMO/SDC–metal oxide composite and achieved even better performances than those for conventional anode–electrolyte–cathode three-layer fuel cells.