Fabrication and Performance of La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ Infiltrated-Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Cathode on Anode-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The three layers with porous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) backbone/dense YSZ/porous NiO–YSZ were fabricated by tape-casting process, respectively, then laminated together and co-fired at 1300 °C for 5 h. The cathode material La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ (LSCF) was loaded by infiltrating the precursor of metal ions into porous YSZ backbone. As a result, LSCF nanoparticles with the size of 60–100 nm were uniformly distributed on YSZ backbone. The power density was 1.046 W cm−2 and the polarization resistance was 0.17 Ω cm2 at 800 °C in humidified H2 (3 vol.% H2O). But the stability was not good enough, especially in early operating stage, e.g., 20 h. After that, it showed good stability for the following 70 h operating under a constant voltage of 0.7 V at 750 °C. This is due to the growth and agglomeration of LSCF nanoparticles at early steps, which reduced the three phase boundaries (TPBs).