Development of Novel Nanostructured Electrolytes for Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Applications

High performance low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) require design of new electrolyte architectures with enhanced ionic transport properties at low temperatures. In this work, fabrication and characterization of one-dimensional composite nanostructures of yttriastabilized zirconia (YSZ) and Sr-doped TiO2 as potential material system with high ionic conductivity at low temperatures is reported. The morphological and structural characteristics of the composite nanoarchitectures were studied using scanning electron microscopy coupled with scanning transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. Preliminary studies of ion transport properties by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were performed to investigate oxygen-vacancy formation and revealed enhanced oxygen exchange at the YSZ/Sr-doped TiO2 interface of these nano-architectures.