Desenvolvimento de materiais catódicos para células a combustível de óxido sólido (SOFC)

Abstract

Fuel cells (FC) are electrochemical devices that convert chemical energy from certain fuels into electrical energy, through oxidation-reduction reactions. They have a basic structure consisting of an electrolyte layer intercalating two electrodes: the cathode (positive electrode) and anode (negative electrode). In this work, cathode materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) were developed, such as lanthanum cobaltite doped with strontium and iron (La0,6Sr0,4Co0,2Fe0,8O3-8-LSCF6428) was synthesized by the modified polymeric precursors method, also known as modified Pechini method and compared the performance with the composite electrodes La0,6Sr0,4Co0,2Fe0,8O3-8/Ce0,9 Gd0,1O2-8 (LSCF6428/ CGO) and La0,6Sr0,4Co0,2Fe0,8O3-8/Ce0,9Gd0,1O2-8/Prox (LSCF6428/CGO/PROX). The method of synthesis consists in the use of commercial gelatin as polymerizing agent for metal ions. The powder obtained at 350 ° C / 2h was calcined at 800 and 1000 ° C / 4h and characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TG), particle size distribution, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The films of (LSCF6428), (LSCF6428 / CGO) and (LSCF6428 / CGO / PROX) were obtained by serigraph of calcined powders at 1000 ° C. The films were deposited on ceria substrates doped with gadolinia Ce0,9Gd0,1O2-8(CGO), sintered at 1150°C and characterized by impedance spectroscopy (in pure oxygen) between 600 and 800°C. The obtained results indicated that the method used was efficient in the formation of porous powders and with the perovskite crystalline structure. The crystallite size for the composite of LSCF6428 / CGO was of 336 (nm) for the LSCF6428 and 98 (nm) for the CGO, being also the expected for a powder calcined at 1000 ° C. The value of the area specific resistance (ASR) for the electrode of pure LSCF6428 at 750 ° C was of 0.25 ohms.cm2 quite plausible, especially because it was not made use of platinum, for the LSCF/CGO/ Prox was obtained an ASR of 0.02 ohms.cm2 at 750 ° C.