Reversible solid oxide cells (rSOCs), as solid oxide fuel cells, are made of four main components: the electrolyte, the fuel and oxygen electrodes, and the interconnects.
The electrodes are porous layers that favor the reactants diffusion inside their structure and catalyze electrochemical reactions. In the single technologies like SOFCs and SOECs, the electrodes serve a single purpose, hence they are called with their specific names. The anode is where the oxidation reaction occurs, while the cathode is where the reduction reaction takes place. In reversible solid oxide cells, on the other hand, both modalities can occur alternatively in the same device. For this reason, the generic names of fuel electrode and oxygen electrode are preferred instead. On the fuel electrode the reactions involving the fuel oxidation (SOFC modality) or the reduction of the products to produce the fuel (SOEC modality) takes place. On the oxygen electrode, oxygen reduction (SOFC modality) or oxygen ions oxidation to form oxygen gas (SOEC modality) takes place.
State-of-the-art materials for rSOCs are those used for SOFCs. The most common fuel electrodes are made by a mixture of nickel, that serves as electronic conductor, and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), a ceramic material characterized by high conductivity to oxygen ions at elevated temperature. The most popular oxygen electrode materials are lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite (LSCF) and lanthanum strontium chromite (LSC), perovskite materials able to catalyze oxygen reduction and oxide ion oxidation reactions.
The electrolyte is a solid-state layer placed between the two electrodes. It is an electric insulator, it is impermeable to gas flow but permeable to oxygen ions flow. Hence, the main properties of this component are the high ion conductivity and the low electrical conductivity. When the rSOC is operated in SOFC mode, oxygen ions flow from the oxygen electrode to the fuel electrode, where the fuel oxidation occurs. In SOEC mode, the reactants are reduced in the anode with the production of oxygen ions, which flow towards the oxygen electrode. The most widespread material for electrolytes is YSZ.
The interconnects are usually made of metallic materials. They provide or collect the electrons involved in the electrochemical reactions. In addition, they are shaped internally with gas channels to distribute the reactants over the cell surface.