Materials and Components for Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells – an Overview

Abstract

This article summarizes the recent advancements made in the area of materials and components for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs). LT-SOFC is a new trend in SOFC technology since high temperature SOFC puts very high demands on the materials and too expensive to match marketability. The current status of the electrolyte and electrode materials used in SOFCs, their specific features and the need for utilizing them for LT-SOFC are presented precisely in this review article. The section on electrolytes gives an overview of zirconia, lanthanum gallate and ceria based materials. Also, this review article explains the application of different anode, cathode and interconnect materials used for SOFC systems. SOFC can result in better performance with the application of liquid fuels such methanol and ethanol. As a whole, this review article discusses the novel materials suitable for operation of SOFC systems especially for low temperature operation.