Team develops surface tuning technique for solid oxide fuel cells using atomic layer deposition

Joon Hyung Shim’s team publishes paper in Advanced Energy Materials

▲ (From left) Joon Hyung Shin (principal investigator, corresponding author), 

Hyung Jong Choi (first author)

Local researchers have succeeded in enhancing the electrochemical performance of SOFCs through a face-off technique, in which ALD is used to change the surface of SOFC cathodes.

Led by Joon Hyung Shim, a professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering under the College of Engineering, the team announced that they have developed an ALD technique to change the surface of SOFC cathodes at the atomic level.

The team’s study, with Dr. Hyung Jong Choi as first author, was recently published in the leading journal Advanced Energy Materials (IF: 21.875, top 1.7% in JCR).

- Title of paper: Surface Tuning of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathode by Atomic Layer Deposition

The study was supported by the Nano Material Technology Development Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Young Min You), and jointly conducted with Manfred Martin, a professor of Germany’s Aachen University.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD), which involves the deposition of a thin film on metal and ceramic substrates, is a highly precise technique used to uniformly deposit films at the atomic level. For this reason, it is a key technology for the manufacture of memory devices and semiconductors.

The team at KU applied ALD to solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to address the relatively low activity of the lanthanum strontium cobaltite ferrite (LSCF) surface. Surface coatings of the more active lanthanum strontium cobaltite (LSC) lower the resistance of the electrode, thereby improving overall output. However, LSC is less durable and cannot maintain its performance over long periods. To overcome this issue, the team came up with a face-off solution, replacing the surface component with LSC while retaining the LSCF body. By using ALD to deposit LSC on the surface, the team succeeded in improving SOFC output by at least two times at 500-600 ℃.

Professor Shim said, “We have demonstrated that ALD can effectively enhance the performance of SOFCs. In the future, ALD can be applied to other energy systems in which surface performance plays an important role.”

[▲ Figure] Application of ALD to SOFCs. SOFC performance improved through a face-off technique, which replaces the LSCF surface component with LSC.