Tailoring Electrochemical Performance of Perovskite Anodes through <i>In Situ</i> Exsolution of Nanocatalysts
Zhu Sun, Weiwei Fan, Yu Bai, Kai Wu, Yonghong Cheng
Abstract
Perovskites are promising alternative materials for conventional Ni-based cermet anodes, benefitting from their mixed ionic and electronic conductivity properties and good structure stability. However, they generally show a commonplace electrochemical catalytic activity. Here, a novel anode material La0.52Sr0.28Ti0.8Co0.1Fe0.1O3−δ (LSTCF) is successfully synthesized, and we report that the electrochemical performance of LSTCF can be commendably tuned by gas treatment, deriving from the exsolution of the impressively well-distributed Co–Fe alloy nanocatalyst with splendid catalytic activity for hydrogen electrochemical oxidation. At 900 °C, a power density value of 897 mW cm–2 is achieved by the treated LSTCF anode when using hydrogen as fuel, which is almost three times higher than that of the fresh anode. Moreover, we show that the nanoparticle-modified LSTCF perovskite also exhibits fascinating electrochemical catalytic activity at low temperatures.