title: Praseodymium Cuprate Thin Film Cathodes for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Roles of Doping, Orientation, and Crystal Structure.
abstract: Highly textured thin films of undoped, Ce-doped, and Sr-doped Pr2CuO4were synthesized on single crystal YSZ substrates using pulsed laser deposition to investigate their area-specific resistance (ASR) as cathodes in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The effects of T' and T* crystal structures, donor and acceptor doping, and a-axis and c-axis orientation on ASR were systematically studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy on half cells. The addition of both Ce and Sr dopants resulted in improvements in ASR in c-axis oriented films, as did the T* crystal structure with the a-axis orientation. Pr1.6Sr0.4CuO4is identified as a potential cathode material with nearly an order of magnitude faster oxygen reduction reaction kinetics at 600 °C compared to thin films of the commonly studied cathode material La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ. Orientation control of the cuprate films on YSZ was achieved using seed layers, and the anisotropy in the ASR was found to be less than an order of magnitude. The rare-earth doped cuprate was found to be a versatile system for study of relationships between bulk properties and the oxygen reduction reaction, critical for improving SOFC performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
authors.forename: Kunal
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2796-856X
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.|Department of Materials Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University , Sendai 908-8579, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayamizu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
authors.forename: Chang Sub
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Moscow State University , Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia.
authors.forename: Liudmila M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Kolchina
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Moscow State University , Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia.
authors.forename: Galina N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Mazo
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Moscow State University , Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia.
authors.forename: Sergey Ya
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Istomin
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
authors.forename: Sean R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
authors.forename: Harry L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Tuller
keywords: combinatorial deposition; mixed ionic electronic conductors; orientation control; solid-oxide fuel cells; thin-film cathodes