Nanocomposites for advanced fuel cell technology

NANOCOFC (Nanocomposites for advanced fuel cell technology) is a research platform/network established based on the FP6 EC-China project www.nanocofc.org. This paper reviews major achievements on two-phase nanocomposites for advanced low temperature (300-600 °C) solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), where the ceria-salt and ceria-oxide composites are common. A typical functional nanocomposite structure is a core-shell type, in which the ceria forms a core and the salt or another oxide form the shell layer. Both of them are in the nano-scale and the functional components. The high resolution TEM analysis has proven a clear interface in the ceria-based two-phase nanocomposites. Such interface and interfacial function has resulted in superionic conductivity, above 0.1 S/cm at around 300 °C, being comparable to that of conventional SOFC YSZ at 1000 °C. Against conventional material design from the structure the advanced nanocomposites are designed by non-structure factors, i.e., the interfaces, and by creating interfacial functionalities between the two constituent phases. These new functional materials show indeed a breakthrough in the SOFC materials with great potential.