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The overall goal of this Boston University project is to deepen the fundamental knowledge and understanding of solid oxide fuel cell interfaces and to employ such understanding to greatly improve electrochemical performance while meeting SECA cost, stability, and lifetime targets at the cell level. Boston University plans to employ newer cathode and electrocatalyst materials and a variety of experimental and computational tools to achieve this goal. 

The specific objectives include: (i) Separating and identifying the influence of oxygen surface adsorption, transport pathways, electron transfer reaction, and incorporation into the electrolyte in the overall oxygen reduction reaction; (ii) Identifying the role and time evolution of the cathode surface and buried layer interface structure, surface electronic properties, surface composition, and the oxidation state of the transition metal ions during the oxygen reduction process; (iii) Using new materials combinations and architectures based on the knowledge gained from (i) and (ii), demonstrate a 50 percent improvement in performance in maximum power densities of cells compared to baseline cells employing state-of-the art materials and cell stability that shows 0.1 percent or less per 1000 hours degradation in cell performance.

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Basic LSCF structure for DFT calculations.
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Principal Investigator
Srikanth Gopalan
sgopalan@bu.edu
Project Benefits

This project focuses on improving cell power density and reducing the cell degradation rate by developing newer cathode and electrocatalyst materials. Improved cell/stack life and performance will reduce operating cost and increase efficiency, resulting in reduction in the cost of electricity and reduction of CO2 emissions from the entire platform. Specifically, this project will employ a combination of experimental and computational tools to probe the surface composition and oxidations states, measure surface exchange and diffusion coefficients of cathode materials, use experimental and theoretical research on thin film cathodes to narrow the choice of newer cathode materials and composition, fabricate and test single cells using selected cathode materials and composition, characterize the microstructure of the cells, and optimize materials choice and cathode microstructure.

Project ID
FE0009656
Website
Trustees of Boston University
http://www.bu.edu/