Currently unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) are powered with lithium ion batteries which can be highly reactive and unsafe.  Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are being investigated as an alternative power source for this application.  SOFCs are highly efficient, can use a flexible fuel source, require very little maintenance, are noiseless and have a higher level of safety in comparison to lithium ion batteries.  In terrestrial applications, SOFCs operate using air as the oxidant while UUVs would use pure oxygen that is stored onboard the vehicle.  In order to take advantage of this environment nickelate cathodes, Ln<sub>2</sub>NiO<sub>4+δ</sub> (Ln= La, Nd, Sm), with layered Ruddlesden-Popper structure are being investigated.  Nickelate cathodes are known to transport oxygen through oxygen interstitials instead of through oxygen vacancies like most conventional cathodes.  This means they could be advantageous for use in high oxygen partial pressure environments where the concentration of oxygen interstitials increases with increasing oxygen partial pressure.  In this study anode supported full cells were tested with various nickelate cathode compositions to determine cell performance. The performance is then modeled to analyze the role of cathode composition and defect chemistry on oxygen transport.

Rare earth nickelate cathodes for SOFCs in high oxygen partial pressure environments

256th National Meeting (2018)

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