Investigation of thermal, electrical, and electrochemical properties of Pr1-xSrxFe1-yCoyO3 (0<x<0.4; y=0.2, 0.5) cathode materials for SOFC

Abstract The new cathode materials Pr1−xSrxFe1−yCoyO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.4; y = 0.2, 0.5) for SOFC have been studied. The materials were synthesized by the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis method. It was shown that the chemical activity of Pr1−xSrxFe1−yCoyO3 (PSFC) with respect to Zr0.84Y0.16O2−δ (YSZ) electrolyte increases with increasing concentration of Sr and Co, whereas the interaction with Ce0.73Gd0.27O2−δ (GDC) electrolyte was not found. The thermal expansion of praseodymium ferro-cobaltite nonlinearly depends on the Sr content with a minimum at x = 0.3. The conductivity of the investigated materials increases with an increase of Sr and Co content. The cathode materials in contact with YSZ have a high polarization resistance (a few Ω cm2 at 850 °C) due to their chemical interaction. Replacement of YSZ electrolyte with GDC results in the reduction of the polarization resistance by an order of magnitude. The Pr0.6Sr0.4Fe0.8Co0.2O3 in contact with GDC has the lowest polarization resistance of 0.05 Ω cm2 at 850 °С.