Advanced metal oxide infiltrated electrodes for boosting the performance of solid oxide cells

An efficient way for boosting the performance of solid oxide electrodes is the infiltration of metallic nanoparticles into both electrodes. In this work we will focus on improving the performance of standard lanthanum strontium manganite oxygen electrodes, by the addition of different metal oxide nanoparticles. First studies will be performed using cerium oxide nanoparticles, as this is the classic oxide already proposed in the literature. Other novel metal oxides such as praseodymium or manganese oxide will be explored, as studies in the literature for these two metal oxides are very scarce. The effect of metal oxide infiltration into LSM/YSZ oxygen electrodes will be studied in both symmetrical cells and complete microtubular cells using conventional fuel electrodes (NiO-YSZ) and electrolytes (YSZ). The obtained current densities in both fuel cell and electrolysis modes are significantly enhanced in comparison with other results in the literature for microtubular configuration. Pr and Mn infiltrated oxide nanoparticles are confirmed as excellent candidates for boosting the performance of standard lanthanum strontium manganese oxygen electrodes.