Bismuth Doped Lanthanum Ferrite Perovskites as Novel Cathodes for Intermediate-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Bismuth is doped to lanthanum strontium ferrite to produce ferrite-based perovskites with a composition of La_0.8‑xBi_xSr_0.2FeO_3‑δ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8) as novel cathode material for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells. The perovskite properties including oxygen nonstoichiometry coefficient (δ), average valence of Fe, sinterability, thermal expansion coefficient, electrical conductivity (σ), oxygen chemical surface exchange coefficient (K_chem), and chemical diffusion coefficient (D_chem) are explored as a function of bismuth content. While σ decreases with x due to the reduced Fe⁴⁺ content, D_chem and K_chem increase since the oxygen vacancy concentration is increased by Bi doping. Consequently, the electrochemical performance is substantially improved and the interfacial polarization resistance is reduced from 1.0 to 0.10 Ω cm² at 700 °C with Bi doping. The perovskite with x = 0.4 is suggested as the most promising composition as solid oxide fuel cell cathode material since it has demonstrated high electrical conductivity and low interfacial polarization resistance.