High growth-rate atomic layer deposition process of cerium oxide thin film for solid oxide fuel cell

Abstract

Cerium oxide (CeO2) shows superior surface exchange, and therefore is widely used for the cathode interlayer coating material to reduce the activation loss in low temperature solid oxide fuel cell (LT-SOFC). Here, we report on the application of the high growth-rate atomic layer deposition (ALD) process of CeO2 thin films as cathodic interlayers for LT-SOFCs. We demonstrate that the maximum power density of the SOFC with pure CeO2 interlayer increases by 45% compared to the one without interlayer at 450 °C. More importantly, the performance degradation rate of the ALD CeO2 interlayered cell improves by 25 times compared to the cell without interlayer during 24 h operation at 450 °C.