Hybrid Electrochemical Deposition Route for the Facile Nanofabrication of a Cr-Poisoning-Tolerant La(Ni,Fe)O_3−δ Cathode for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Cr poisoning of cathode materials is one of the main degradation issues hampering the operation of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). To overcome this shortcoming, LaNi0.6Fe0.4O3−δ (LNF) has been developed as an alternative cathode material owing to its superior chemical stability in Cr environments. In this study, we develop a hybrid electrochemical deposition technique to fabricate a nanostructured LNF–gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) (n-LNF–GDC) cathode with enhanced active reaction sites for the oxygen reduction reaction. For this purpose, Fe and Ni cations are co-deposited onto an electrically conductive carbon nanotube-modified GDC backbone by electroplating, whereas La cations are successively deposited through a chemically assisted electrodeposition method. The proposed method involves a low-temperature (900 °C) calcination step of electrodeposited cations, which avoids the need of fabricating a GDC diffusion barrier layer which is otherwise needed to avoid the formation of insulating phases (e.g., La2Zr2O7) when fabricating by conventional high-temperature (≥1000 °C) sintering. Scanning electron microscopy images reveal a unique nanofibrous structure of n-LNF–GDC, which is believed to play an instrumental role in enhancing the electrochemical characteristics by increasing the active triple-phase boundaries. An anode-supported SOFC with the n-LNF–GDC cathode showed the superior performance of 0.984 W cm–2 at an intermediate temperature of 750 °C as compared to the power densities of 0.495 and 0.874 W cm–2 produced by LNF–GDC and state-of-the-art La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ (LSCF)–GDC composite cathodes fabricated by conventional sintering. A short-term accelerated Cr-poisoning durability test indicated good electrochemical stability of n-LNF–GDC, whereas LSCF exhibited severe degradation. The electrochemically engineered nanostructured n-LNF–GDC can serve as an effective cathode for SOFCs to achieve high performance and long-term durability.