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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2023, 12(11): 2017-2031 https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220804
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 29 November 2023

Entropy engineering design of high-performing lithiated oxide cathodes for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells

Show Author's Information Yufeng Lia,†,  Yangsen Xua,†,  Yanru Yina,  Hailu Daib,  Yueyuan Gua( ),  Lei Bia( )
School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng 224051, China

† Yufeng Li and Yangsen Xu contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
cathode, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), proton conductor, entropy design, LiCo0.25Fe0.25Mn0.25Ni0.25O2 (LCFMN)
Cite this article:
Li Y, Xu Y, Yin Y, et al. Entropy engineering design of high-performing lithiated oxide cathodes for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2023, 12(11): 2017-2031. https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220804
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

A new medium entropy material LiCo0.25Fe0.25Mn0.25Ni0.25O2 (LCFMN) is proposed as a cathode for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). Unlike traditional LiXO2 (X = Co, Fe, Mn, Ni) lithiated oxides, which have issues like phase impurity, poor chemical compatibility, or poor fuel cell performance, the new LCFMN material mitigates these problems, allowing for the successful preparation of pure phase LCFMN with good chemical and thermal compatibility to the electrolyte. Furthermore, the entropy engineering strategy is found to weaken the covalence bond between the metal and oxygen in the LCFMN lattice, favoring the creation of oxygen vacancies and increasing cathode activity. As a result, the H-SOFC with the LCFMN cathode achieves an unprecedented fuel cell output of 1803 mW·cm−2 at 700 ℃, the highest ever reported for H-SOFCs with lithiated oxide cathodes. In addition to high fuel cell performance, the LCFMN cathode permits stable fuel cell operation for more than 450 h without visible degradation, demonstrating that LCFMN is a suitable cathode choice for H-SOFCs that combining high performance and good stability.


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About this article

Entropy engineering design of high-performing lithiated oxide cathodes for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells

Show Author's information Yufeng Lia,†, Yangsen Xua,†, Yanru Yina, Hailu Daib, Yueyuan Gua( ), Lei Bia( )
School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng 224051, China

† Yufeng Li and Yangsen Xu contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

A new medium entropy material LiCo0.25Fe0.25Mn0.25Ni0.25O2 (LCFMN) is proposed as a cathode for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (H-SOFCs). Unlike traditional LiXO2 (X = Co, Fe, Mn, Ni) lithiated oxides, which have issues like phase impurity, poor chemical compatibility, or poor fuel cell performance, the new LCFMN material mitigates these problems, allowing for the successful preparation of pure phase LCFMN with good chemical and thermal compatibility to the electrolyte. Furthermore, the entropy engineering strategy is found to weaken the covalence bond between the metal and oxygen in the LCFMN lattice, favoring the creation of oxygen vacancies and increasing cathode activity. As a result, the H-SOFC with the LCFMN cathode achieves an unprecedented fuel cell output of 1803 mW·cm−2 at 700 ℃, the highest ever reported for H-SOFCs with lithiated oxide cathodes. In addition to high fuel cell performance, the LCFMN cathode permits stable fuel cell operation for more than 450 h without visible degradation, demonstrating that LCFMN is a suitable cathode choice for H-SOFCs that combining high performance and good stability.

Keywords: cathode, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), proton conductor, entropy design, LiCo0.25Fe0.25Mn0.25Ni0.25O2 (LCFMN)

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Publication history

Received: 02 July 2023
Revised: 29 August 2023
Accepted: 05 September 2023
Published: 29 November 2023
Issue date: November 2023

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© The Author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52272216 and 51972183), the Hundred Youth Talents Program of Hunan, and the Startup Funding for Talents at University of South China.

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