Enhancing Bifunctional Electrocatalytic Activities of Oxygen Electrodes via Incorporating Highly Conductive Sm³⁺ and Nd³⁺ Double-Doped Ceria for Reversible Solid Oxide Cells

Abstract

Solid oxide cells (SOCs) are mutually convertible energy devices capable of generating electricity from chemical fuels including hydrogen in the fuel cell mode and producing green hydrogen using electricity from renewable but intermittent solar and wind resources in the electrolysis cell mode. An effective approach to enhance the performance of SOCs at reduced temperatures is by developing highly active oxygen electrodes for both oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. Herein, highly conductive Sm³⁺ and Nd³⁺ double-doped ceria (Sm_0.075Nd_0.075Ce_0.85O_2-δ, SNDC) is utilized as an active component for reversible SOC applications. We develop a novel La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_0.2Fe_0.8O_{3 -δ} (LSCF)-SNDC composite oxygen electrode. Compared with the conventional LSCF-Gd-doped ceria oxygen electrode, the LSCF-SNDC exhibits ∼35% lower cathode polarization resistance (0.042 Ω cm² at 750 °C) owing to rapid oxygen incorporation and surface diffusion kinetics. Furthermore, the SOC with the LSCF-SNDC oxygen electrode and the SNDC buffer layer yields a remarkable performance in both the fuel cell (1.54 W cm^-2 at 750 °C) and electrolysis cell (1.37 A cm^-2 at 750 °C) modes because the incorporation of SNDC promotes the surface diffusion kinetics at the oxygen electrode bulk and the activity of the triple phase boundary at the interface. These findings suggest that the highly conductive SNDC material effectively enhances both oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, thus serving as a promising material in reversible SOC applications at reduced temperatures.