Sintering Effects on LSCF Cathodes for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (IT-SOFCs)

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have been the centre of much research attention as these shows much potential in the generation of electrical power especially in terms of the high conversion efficiency of chemical energy to electric power. Recent research has been focused on a new material which is an electro catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in the intermediate temperature range (600-800oC). In this work, perovskite oxide which is a mixed ionic conducting material, La1-xSrxCo0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) with x = 0.3-0.5 has been developed using the sol-gel method. The obtained powders were pelletized and sintered at different temperatures from 800 to1300oC. The sintered properties of the LSCF pellets such as density, porosity, grain size and shrinkage were investigated. A sintering temperature of 900oC was found to be the optimum temperature for the preparation of the LSCF cathodes in this study.