Nanofiber Composite Cathode in Sofc Application : Development of Nanofiber Composite Cathodes for Intermediate Temperature SOFC

The composite cathode La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-(LSCF) powder and Ce0.78Gd0.2Sr0.02O2-(GDCSr) nanofiber are investigated for IT SOFC.A mixing method was used to fabricate nanofibers composite cathode by adding various wt.% of GDCSr nanofibers (20, 50, and 80wt.%) into LSCF powder using conventional heating.Nanofibers play an important role to control porosity inside the composite cathode structure.Selective heating of microwave energy was successful to enhance the properties of composite cathode.Microwave energy was used to heat the nanofiber composite cathode with mixing method to improve the performance. Experimental result shows that the cathode polarization resistance decrease, the exchange current density become higher, and the catalytic activity inside structure increase significantly.A sandwich method was investigated to improve nanofiber structure continuity of the mixing method.Enhancement of structure connection between nanofibers and powders causes higher performance of composite cathode made by sandwich method mixing method.