Structural and electrochemical characterization of low-cost LixCu1-xCoy Fe1-yO3-δ cathode material for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell

Abstract Lowering the operating temperature of the solid oxide fuel cell by low-cost material is still a challenge. The present study reports LixCu1-xCoyFe1-yO3-δ (x = 0.20, 0.40, y = 0.20, 0.40) composite material as a potential cathode for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC). This mixed ionic electronic conducting material (MIEC) is synthesized by sol-gel method. The X-Ray Diffraction analysis (XRD) is considered to examine biphasic sharp crystalline, hexagonal and monoclinic structure while Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is used to analyse surface morphology which is found to be porous, distinct almost homogenous particles of varying size of novel composite cathode material. The results revealed that composite nanostructured particles have appropriate porosity with diffused channels and no crack. Thermal properties are studied by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) that showed different stages of changes with the respective rise of temperature (40°C–800 °C). The investigation of electrical properties was carried out by DC four-probe method that showed conductivities of Li0.2Cu0.8Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ and Li0.4Cu0.6Co0.4Fe0.6O3-δ was 14.81 Scm−1 and 11.59 Scm−1 respectively. The significant power and current densities as 68.20 mWcm−2, 736 mAcm−2 for Li0.2Cu0.8Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ and 60.1 mWcm−2, 713 mAcm−2 for Li0.4Cu0.6Co0.4Fe0.6O3-δ respectively were achieved. The preliminary results showed that the LixCu1-xCoyFe1-yO3-δ (LCCF) was highly capable cathode material to get IT-SOFC with SDC electrode.