Protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs), as an efficient
energy storage
and conversion device, have great potential to solve the serious problems
of energy shortage and environmental pollution. Improving the proton
conductivity of the promising cathode materials is an effective solution
to promote the widespread application of PCFCs at low temperatures
(450–650 °C). Herein, considering the high oxygen reduction
reaction (ORR) activity of BaCoO3-based perovskite oxide
and beneficial proton uptake capacity of Zn-doping, we construct BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zn0.1Y0.1O3‑δ (BCFZnY) as the PCFCs cathode, and compare it with the classic triple-conducting
cathode BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zr0.1Y0.1O3‑δ (BCFZrY). Different from the general
strategy of increasing the initial oxygen vacancy concentration of
cathode materials, this work unveils that enhancing the hydration
of perovskite oxide with low oxygen vacancy concentration is a more
effective strategy to accelerate the proton diffusion in the electrode.
Therefore, the BCFZnY cathode achieved excellent proton conductivities
of 8.05 × 10–3 and 6.38 × 10–3 S cm–1 as obtained by hydrogen permeation measurements
and peak power densities of 982 and 320 mW cm–2 in
a BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3‑δ-based anode-supported fuel cell at 600
and 450 °C, respectively.