Ni and Ni-Co La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.8Mg0.2O3−δ infiltrated cells in H2and CH4/CO2 mixture

•Ni, Co, NiCu, NiCo impregnated LSGM powders and LSGM based infiltrated cells.•Catalytic activity for DMR reaction in the order: Ni∼Ni-Co > Co > Ni-Cu.•Ni and Ni-Co infiltrated cells both in H2 and CH4:CO2 = 60:40 vol% mixture.•Promising and coking-resistant NiCo infiltrated anodes.•Agreement between the catalytic investigation and the electrochemical results.

La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.8Mg0.2O3−δ(LSGM) based fuel cells infiltrated with different metal catalysts were fabricated and tested both in H2 and CH4/CO2mixture. Ni, Co, Ni-Cu, Ni-Co LSGM impregnated powders were investigated for the dry reforming of methane reaction (DRM) (CH4 + CO2 ⇆ 2CO + 2H2). The catalytic activity for CH4 and CO2 conversion followed the order Ni∼Ni-Co > Co > Ni-Cu. Both Ni and Ni-Co catalysts, investigated versus time (50 h) on stream of CH4/CO2 = 1.5 at 800 °C, did not show any sign of deactivation indicating their stability toward coke deposition. Anyway, evidence of few carbon filaments was revealed by SEM micrographs and the carbon amount evaluated by TG-DTA analysis. Ni-LSGM and Ni-CoLSGM cells showed regarding electrochemical performance both in H2 and CH4/CO2 mixture in the 650–750 °C temperature range. A discussion on the parallelism between catalytic and electrochemical performance is detailed.

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