Semiconductor-ionic Membrane of LaSrCoFe-oxide-doped Ceria Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

[Display omitted] •LSCF-SCDC nanocomposite has been developed as a membrane for SIMFC fabrication.•The SIMFC exhibited maximum power density of 814mWcm−2 at 550°C.•The SIMFC presented better performance than that of conventional FC technology.•The Schottky junction effect was proposed to avoid the short circuiting problem. A novel semiconductor-ionic La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF)-Sm/Ca co-doped CeO2 (SCDC) nanocomposite has been developed as a membrane, which is sandwiched between two layers of Ni0.8Co0.15Al0.05Li-oxide (NCAL) to construct semiconductor-ion membrane fuel cell (SIMFC). Such a device presented an open circuit voltage (OCV) above 1.0V and maximum power density of 814mWcm−2 at 550°C, which is much higher than 0.84V and 300mWcm−2 for the fuel cell using the SCDC membrane. Moreover, the SIMFC has a relatively promising long-term stability, the voltage can maintain at 0.966V for 60hours without degradation during the fuel cells operation and the open-circuit voltage (OCV) can return to 1.06V after long-term fuel cell operation. The introduction of LSCF electronic conductor into the membrane did not cause any short circuit but brought significant enhancement of fuel cell performances. The Schottky junction is proposed to prevent the internal electrons passing thus avoiding the device short circuiting problem.