Dealing with degradation in solid oxide electrochemical cells: Novel materials and spectroscopic probes

In this PhD thesis, we have focused on two of the main issues regarding solid oxide fuel cells and electrolysers. On the one hand, the high temperatures at which they work (800-1000ºC) is detrimental for their long-term performance, and novel combinations of electrolyte and oxygen electrode materials have been tested in order to establish their suitability to work in intermediate temperature (600-800ºC) solid oxide fuel cells. On the other hand, degradation issues affect these devices greatly when working in the electrolyser mode, often assigned to the development of high oxygen partial pressures within the electrolyte. Regarding this topic, we have developed an analytical procedure to monitor the oxygen activity inside a YSZ electrolyte using redox dopants as spectroscopic probes and used it in cells tested in different conditions in the electrolysis mode.