Nanostructured La _0.5 Ba _0.5 CoO ₃ as cathode for solid oxide fuel cells

A simple method has been used to synthesize nanostructured La _0.5 Ba _0.5 CoO ₃ (LBCO) powders, by confining chemical precursors into the pores of polycarbonate filters. The proposed method allows us to obtain powders formed by crystallites of different sizes, it is scalable and does not involve the use of sophisticated deposition techniques. The area specific polarization resistance of symmetrical cells was studied to analyze the electrochemical behavior of the LBCO nanostructures as cathodes for Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells. We show that the performance is improved by reducing the size of the crystallites, obtaining area specific resistance values of 0.2 Ωcm ² at 700 °C, comparable with newly developed cathodes using novel deposition techniques.