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LiCoO2, a widely used electrode material for Li-ion batteries, was found to be suitable as a cathode material for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). Although the evaporation of Li in LiCoO2 was detrimental to the Li-ion battery performance, the Li-evaporation was found to be beneficial for the H-SOFCs. The partial evaporation of Li in the LiCoO2 material preparation procedure led to the in-situ formation of the LiCoO2+Co3O4 composite. Compared to the cell using the pure phase LiCoO2 cathode that only generated moderate fuel cell performance, the H-SOFCs using the LiCoO2+Co3O4 cathode showed a high fuel cell performance of 1160 mW·cm–2 at 700 ℃, suggesting that the formation of Co3O4 was critical for enhancing the performance of the LiCoO2 cathode. The first-principles calculation gave insights into the performance improvements, indicating that the in-situ formation of Co3O4 due to the Li-evaporation in LiCoO2 could dramatically decrease the formation energy of oxygen vacancies that is essential for the high cathode performance. The evaporation of Li in LiCoO2, which is regarded as a drawback for the Li-ion batteries, is demonstrated to be advantageous for the H-SOFCs, offering new selections of cathode candidates for the H-SOFCs.


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Taking advantage of Li-evaporation in LiCoO2 as cathode for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells

Show Author's information Yangsen XUShoufu YUYanru YINLei BI( )
School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China

Abstract

LiCoO2, a widely used electrode material for Li-ion batteries, was found to be suitable as a cathode material for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). Although the evaporation of Li in LiCoO2 was detrimental to the Li-ion battery performance, the Li-evaporation was found to be beneficial for the H-SOFCs. The partial evaporation of Li in the LiCoO2 material preparation procedure led to the in-situ formation of the LiCoO2+Co3O4 composite. Compared to the cell using the pure phase LiCoO2 cathode that only generated moderate fuel cell performance, the H-SOFCs using the LiCoO2+Co3O4 cathode showed a high fuel cell performance of 1160 mW·cm–2 at 700 ℃, suggesting that the formation of Co3O4 was critical for enhancing the performance of the LiCoO2 cathode. The first-principles calculation gave insights into the performance improvements, indicating that the in-situ formation of Co3O4 due to the Li-evaporation in LiCoO2 could dramatically decrease the formation energy of oxygen vacancies that is essential for the high cathode performance. The evaporation of Li in LiCoO2, which is regarded as a drawback for the Li-ion batteries, is demonstrated to be advantageous for the H-SOFCs, offering new selections of cathode candidates for the H-SOFCs.

Keywords: composite, cathode, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), proton conductor

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Publication history

Received: 01 April 2022
Revised: 16 August 2022
Accepted: 23 August 2022
Published: 08 November 2022
Issue date: December 2022

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© The Author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51972183), the Hundred Youth Talents Program of Hunan, and the Startup Funding for Talents at University of South China.

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