Cathodic reaction of perovskite oxide electrodes on a proton conducting electrolyte

Cathodic reaction of protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) using SrZrO ₃ based proton conducting electrolyte with perovskite oxide cathode is studied. A dense La_0.6Sr_0.4CoO₃ (LSC) film is fabricated on 10mol% Y-doped SrZrO3 (SZY) electrolyte using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method as a cathode. Cathodic performance of the dense LSC electrode is evaluated using AC impedance measurement and Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis. Impedance spectra suggest that LSC dense film play a role as proton blocking electrode. SIMS analysis reveals that proton concentration in LSC dense film is higher than bulk of LSC, and there is no concentration gradient in LSC and SZY. Therefore, it is suggested that proton surface exchange rate of LSC is very low.