Perovskite oxide-based nanohybrid for low-temperature thin-film solid oxide fuel cells fabricated via a facile and scalable electrochemical process

Abstract

High-performance electrodes for energy conversion systems can be achieved through the selection of materials with appropriate functionality as well as fabricating the desired nanoarchitectures. Nanohybrids of metal and perovskite metal oxide have a great potential as electrodes owing to the combined advantages of the active constituents; however, the controlled hybridization in nanoscale is hindered by the conflicting nature of the metal and perovskite oxide, and it should involve cost-, energy- and time-intensive fabrication techniques. Here, we report an electrochemical process as a facile, cost-effective, and scalable route to fabricating metal perovskite metal oxide nanohybrids with tailored architectures. We successfully fabricate a Pt@LaCoO3 nanohybrid that consists of a conformal LaCoO3 nanonetwork on a nanoporous Pt thin-film framework. We examine this nanohybrid as an electrode for thin-film-based, low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells and demonstrate that the synergistic nanostructuring of Pt@LaCoO3 leads to exceptionally high oxygen reduction activity at reduced operating temperature and high stability.