Development of Natural Mineral Composites for Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Författare: Chen Xia; Andrew R. Martin; Peter Lund; Yongdan Li; Kth; []

Nyckelord: ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY; TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER; ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY; TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER; TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER; ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY; Natural hematite; Natural rare-earth; LT-SOFCs; composite electrolytes; material characterization; conductivity; electrochemical performance.; Chemical Engineering; Kemiteknik; Materials Science and Engineering; Teknisk materialvetenskap;

Sammanfattning: Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have attracted growing attention worldwide because of their high conversion efficiency and low emissions when paired with clean fuel sources. Currently, reducing the temperature of SOFC to a low-temperature (LT) range is a mainstream trend of SOFC research. One effective way to reach this target is to explore alternative electrolytes that can maintain a desirable ionic conductivity at low temperatures. Meanwhile, it has been found that natural minerals hold great potential as functional materials for energy conversion technologies, especially ion-conducting hematite and rare-earth oxides. This thesis presents an experimental investigation of novel composite electrolytes based on two common natural minerals: hematite (LW) (α-Fe2O3) and La0.33Ce0.62Pr0.05O2-δ (LCP) for LT-SOFCs application. Initially, hematite (LW) and LCP are characterized and demonstrated as electrolytes in SOFCs. It is found the hematite ore is a mixture of α-Fe2O3, silica, and calcite, while the LCP mineral is a La/Pr co-doped CeO2. Both hematite (LW) and LCP cells exhibit encouraging performance with power densities of 150-225 and 295-401 mW cm-2 at 500-600 ℃, respectively.Following above findings, two mineral based nanocomposites – hematite-LCP and LCP/K2WO4 – are developed. Electrochemical and electrical studies reveal that the hematite-LCP gains a significantly enhanced conductivity (0.116 S cm-1 at 600 ℃) compared to individual hematite (LW) and LCP. The hematite-LCP based SOFC exhibits attractive power densities of 386-625 mW cm-2 at 450-600 ℃. Further investigation indicates that heterophasic interfacial conduction plays a crucial role in resulting in the good performance. Another composite LCP/K2WO4 is synthesized from LCP and tungstate through a wet-chemical route. The obtained composites exhibit enhanced grain boundary conduction compared to that of LCP. The composition dependence of the electrical conductivity has been studied, indicating that 90 wt% LCP/10 wt% K2WO4 is the optimum proportion with highest ionic conductivity and negligible electronic conductivity. The corresponding SOFC displays the highest power density of 500 mW cm-2 at 550 ℃. Furthermore, by incorporating a semiconductor La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) into LCP and hematite-LCP, respectively, two semiconducting-ionic composites LCP-LSCF and hematite/LCP-LSCF are designed. Crystallographic and morphological characterizations are carried out to gain insight into the material features, and the two composites are applied as the intermediate membrane layer in LT electrolyte-layer free fuel cells (EFFCs). Investigations in terms of conductivity and fuel cell performance reveal that the two composites obtain improved ionic conductivities and cell power outputs compared with those of LCP and hematite-LCP. It is also found the two composites possess mixed ionic and electronic conductivities, which are balanced in the optimal composites. Additionally, stability and Schottky junction of the best-performance EFFC are studied to verify its reliability. 

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