A heuristic approach to boost the performance and Cr poisoning tolerance of solid oxide fuel cell cathode by robust multi-doped ceria coating

Herein, highly conductive, robust, and innovative Gd and Pr multi-doped ceria (GPDC) coating, to boost the ORR kinetics and stability against Cr poisoning of the state-of-the-art La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) cathode, is reported. The GPDC coating significantly enhanced the ORR kinetics by ameliorating the surface of the LSCF cathode and showed a two-fold increment in the electrochemical performance compared to the cell with a bare LSCF cathode. The SOFC with GPDC-coated LSCF cathode showed outstanding stability at 700 °C for 500 h with a degradation rate of 0.001% h−1 in an accelerated Cr poisoning test which is attributed to the alleviation of the formation in SrCrO4. Both distributions of relaxation time-based analysis and experimental results indicate that the GPDC coating improves the ORR activity and Cr tolerance of the LSCF cathode. This study provides a comprehensive and smart strategy to tailor the surface of SOFC cathode materials to enhance performance and durability.