Improving thermal stability of nanoporous platinum cathode at platinum/yttria-stabilized zirconia interface by oxygen plasma treatment

A short oxygen plasma treatment applied on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte of a solid oxide fuel cell has effectively improved the adhesion between the nanoporous Pt thin film cathode and the YSZ electrolyte, which stabilizes the electrochemically active nanoscale features of Pt at YSZ contact interface. After operating at 450 °C for 10 h, the cell with YSZ surface treated by oxygen plasma has retained 88.2% of the fuel cell current output, and the increase of Rohm is approximately 20% lower in the cell with YSZ than the non-treated YSZ. This is because the ion incorporation reaction sites which usually occurs at Pt/YSZ interface is retained by the preservation of nanoporous Pt features at YSZ contact interface.