| With the current demand for alternative energy sources, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are attracting considerable attention due to their ability to efficiently generate clean energy with minimal side-products. The work presented in this thesis explored the incorporation of the perovskite Sr2Fe 1.5Mo0.5O6-delta as an anode material in an entirely perovskite SOFC. Most commercially available SOFCs cannot operate on carbon-based fuels without external fuel reformers to prevent runaway graphite growth. However, these perovskite SOFCs were shown to readily and efficiently generate large amounts of current and power with alcohol fuels (which can be readily derived from biological sources). A unique in situ Raman spectroscopy setup was coupled with electrochemical analysis to investigate the real-time chemistry occurring in these SOFCs. Moving forward, perovskite-based SOFCs promise to be an exciting part of the solution as the world transitions to cleaner energy sources. |
