Materials Frontiers for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs): Structure-Performance Correlation

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, novel technologies for the production of energy, such as fuel cell systems that combine low CO₂ emission outputs with the conversion of fuel to electricity, have been proposed and garnered significant attention as promising energy supplies employing renewed fuels such as hydrogen. Fuel cells present several benefits: (i) high efficiencies (up to 75–85 %); (ii) low or zero CO₂ emissions; and (iii) suitability for both stationary and mobile applications. Fuel cells can operate at low and high temperatures depending on the electrolyte used. Among the high-temperature cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) show high potentiality due to their total efficiency, which is up to 85% when heat cogeneration is considered. These devices can convert various kinds of fuels into electricity with high efficiency and low levels of catalyst degradation. In addition, if the syngas produced from the biomass gasification process is used as fuel, in order to preserve the performance of the catalyst, hot gas conditioning is normally performed in order to reduce the number of typical contaminants. Thus, for the durable operations of SOFC fuel cells, an efficient gas cleaning phase is essential to remove the critical pollutants that significantly deteriorate the fuel cell systems. In particular, the purpose of this Special Issue is to publish high-quality research papers and review articles that address the study, synthesis, and characterization of advanced materials for SOFC fuel cells, as well as the materials and processes enable to perform a gas cleaning treatment with high efficiency and low cost for the fuel conditioning stage in SOFC applications.

Dr. Alessandro Dell'Era
Dr. Enrico Bocci
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• advanced materials
• catalysts
• fuel cells
• energy production
• gas cleaning
• contaminants removal