Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Korea University, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Yonsei University and Hyundai Motor Company have reported an infiltration technique that enables in situ synthesis of extremely small, thermally stable perovskite (Sm0.5Sr0.5)CoO3 nanocatalysts on the inner surface of porous SOC electrodes.
The team identified certain impurity phases, such as SrCO3, that cause fatal degradation and eliminated them using a rational complexation strategy optimized for individual constituent cations. Consequently, they fabricated ∼ 20 nm diameter, highly pure, single-phase nanocatalysts that achieved more than double the performance of a cell with standard (La,Sr)(Co,Fe)O3– and (La,Sr)CoO3-based air electrode.
The cells stably operated during long-term tests in both the power generation and H2 production modes, with negligible degradation. Furthermore, they successfully scaled up this process to fabricate large-scale commercial cells using a fully automated process.
"Our newly developed nanomaterials achieved both high performance ans stability for high-temperature water electrolysis technology, and it can contribute to lower the production cost of green hydrogen, making it economically competitive with gray hydrogen in the future," said Dr. Kyungjoong Yoon of KIST. "For commercialization, we plan to develop automated processing techniques for mass production in cooperation with industry cell manufacturers."
The findings of this study could help resolve critical barriers with high-temperature nanomaterials and accelerate the commercialization of SOC technology.
