Effect of the symmetric cell preparation temperature on the activity of Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe0.8Cu0.2O3-δ as cathode for intermediate temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

In this work we studied the electrochemical performance of Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe0.8Cu0.2O3-δ (BSFCu) as cathode for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (IT-SOFC) with Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 (CGO) electrolyte and the effect of the symmetric cell preparation temperature on the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. Symmetrical cells with the configuration BSFCu/CGO/BSFCu were prepared at 900 °C, 950 °C and 1000 °C to perform the electrochemical characterization in the 500-700 °C temperature range. The resultant area specific resistance (ASR) of the cells with different preparation temperatures followed the tendency: ASR900°C < ASR950°C < ASR1000°C. The symmetric cell constructed at 900 °C showed ASR values of 0.18, 0.078 and 0.035 Ω cm2 at 600, 650 and 700 °C respectively, which demonstrated superior electrochemical activities than previous reports. Additional, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM) techniques were used to characterize the microstructure of the original and fired BSFCu materials and correlate it with the cell preparation temperature.