ABSTRACT
The solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have dominated competing fuel cell technologies for several decades because of their high energy conversion efciency, extremely low pollution emission, and the ability of using currently available fossil fuels.1,2 SOFC works on the similar principles as all other fuel cells. Figure 3.1 shows schematically how a SOFC works. The cell is composed of a solid electrolyte sandwiched in between two porous electrodes. During the operation, the oxygen/air ows into the cathode, where the oxygen molecules react with electrons and split into two oxygen ions. Those oxygen ions diffuse into the solid electrolyte and migrate from the cathode side to the anode side. On the anode side, oxygen ions then oxidize the fuel and release electrons with a higher potential to an external circuit, thus providing electrical energy and water. Compared to other fuel cell technologies, SOFCs also bear certain properties, which make them particularly interesting and also challenging. First, different from polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, the SOFC has a solid dense electrolyte. In this case, the gas transport through the electrolyte is not governed by the size of gas molecules and the size of the electrolyte membrane. Instead, the electrically charged oxygen ions are selectively conducted through the electrolyte via solid-state conduction,3 thus preventing the crossover of other gaseous
3.1 Solid Oxide Fuel Cells .................................................................................... 61 3.2 Electrospun Materials for SOFC Cathodes .................................................... 63
3.2.1 Lanthanum Strontium Cobalt Ferrite-Gadolinia-Doped Ceria Nanober Cathode .................................................................... 63
3.2.2 8 wt% Y2O3 Stabilized ZrO2-LSCF (8YSZ-LSCF) Nanober Cathode .............................................................................. 67
3.2.3 Strontium-Doped Samarium Cobaltite Nanober Cathode................ 67 3.2.4 Other Materials ...................................................................................68
