Nanomaterials and technologies for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells : recent advances, challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) show considerable promise for meeting the current ever-increasing energy demand and environmental sustainability requirements because of their high efficiency, low environmental impact, and distinct fuel diversity. In the past few decades, extensive R&D efforts have been focused on lowering operational temperatures in order to decrease the system (stack and balance-of-plant) cost and improve the longevity of operationally useful devices of commercial relevance. Nanomaterials and related nanotechnologies have the potential to improve SOFC performance because of their advantageous functionalities, namely, their enlarged surface area and unique surface and interface properties compared to their microscale analogs. Recently, the use of nanomaterials has increased rapidly, as reflected by the exponential growth in the number of publications since 2002. In this work, we present a comprehensive summary of nanoparticles, nano-thin films and nanocomposites with different crystal phases, morphologies, microstructures, electronic properties, and electrochemical performances for low temperature SOFCs (LT-SOFCs), with focus on efforts to enhance electrical efficiency, to induce novel fundamental properties that are inaccessible in microcrystalline materials, and to promote the commercialization of LT-SOFCs. Recent progress in the applications of many classically or newly chemical and physical nanomaterials and nanofabrication techniques, such as thin film vacuum deposition, impregnation, electrospinning, spark plasma sintering, hard- and soft-template methods, and in-situ nanoparticle surface exsolution are also thoroughly described. The technological and scientific advantages and limitations related to the use of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies are highlighted, along with our expectations for future research within this emerging field.