Insight into the effect of Gd-doping on conductance and thermal matching of CeO2 for solid oxide fuel cell

GDC (Gd-doped CeO2) play a dual role in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), effectively blocking the reaction between YSZ (Y2O3-doped ZrO2) electrolyte and high-performance cathode materials such as La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O, and improving the low-temperature oxygen ion transport in composite cathodes. It is crucial to systematically investigate the influencing mechanism of Gd-doping on conductance and thermal matching of CeO2 for high-efficiency and stable SOFC. In this paper, the physical phase, morphology and electrochemical performance of Ce1-xGdxO (x = 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25) were characterized, and the thermal matching between GDC and other cell components was investigated by finite-element thermal stress calculations and cold-heat-cycling tests. The results indicate that Ce0.8Gd0.2O obtains the optimum conductivity, whether in the low temperature segment affected by the grain boundary with the space charge layer, or in the activation energy controlled medium temperature segment. Moreover, the finite-element calculation shows that the thermal stresses of the electrolyte facing the barrier layer and the barrier layer facing the cathode decrease gradually with the increase of Gd-doping. Consequently, the cell with Ce0.8Gd0.2O applied to the composite cathode and the barrier layer presents the optimal output performance of 0.87 W cm−2 at 750 °C, and the cell performance decreased by only 1.15 % after 50 thermal cycles between 25 and 800 °C. This is significant for improving the long-term operational stability of SOFC under thermal cycling conditions.