Review on recent advancement in cathode material for lower and intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells application

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is known for its higher efficiency compared to the other types of fuel cells. Even so, the application of SOFC is hindered by the operational temperature of 800 °C–1000 °C. Lowering the operational temperature below 1000 °C of SOFC becomes the major concern to allow wider applications as well as to increase the durability of the system. Improving the electrochemical performance for SOFC requires further improvement on the main components of SOFC including the air/oxygen electrode namely, the cathode. The manganite, cobaltite, ferro-cobaltite, and ferrite-based materials are known to be used as SOFC cathode, alongside new candidates such as lithiated-based material. Nonetheless, the key challenges for SOFC cathode are to find a suitable material with high electrocatalytic property at lower operational temperature of 400 °C–800 °C. This review paper provides brief information that covered as-mentioned cathode categories, taking into account the microstructural modifications performed via composite, doping, infiltration technique, and synthesis method. Finally, electrolyte-layer free fuel cell (EFFC) is introduced as a new type of SOFC that use natural resources in the fuel cells as a process to reduce its cost. • Developing new cathode material to solve existing problem in solid oxide fuel cells. • Modifying the microstructure improves the electrical efficiency at low temperature. • Understanding the mechanism of oxygen reduction reaction for the rational design. • Electrolyte layer free fuel cells can reduce the cost of cells manufacturing.