Au-Coated Lanthanum Strontium Cobalt Ferrite Cathode for Lowering Sheet Resistance of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Abstract

In this paper, we fabricate a thin film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite (LSCF) cathode which is coated with an Au layer by sputtering. The fabricated thin film SOFC has a 370-nm-thick Ni anode/880-nm-thick YSZ electrolyte/440-nm-thick LSCF cathode/130-nm-thick Au layer. The electrochemical performances of the thin film SOFC with the LSCF cathode coated with a 130-nm-thick Au layer and another SOFC without an Au layer are measured at the operating temperature of 600 °C. Since the LSCF cathode coated with a 130-nm-thick Au layer significantly lowers the sheet resistance (in-plane direction resistance), the peak power densities of the thin film SOFC with the LSCF cathode coated with a 130-nm-thick Au layer and the thin film SOFC with the LSCF cathode without a 130-nm-thick Au layer are 500 mW/cm2 and 49 mW/cm2, respectively. Due to the LSCF cathode coated with a 130-nm-thick Au layer, the peak power density of the thin film SOFC with the Au-coated LSCF cathode is 10 times higher than that of the LSCF cathode without Au layer.