A Study of the Oxygen Surface Exchange Coefficient on La0.5Sr0.5CoO3−δ Thin Films

La0.5Sr0.5CoO3−δ (LSCO) can be used as a cathode material for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell applications. LSCO epitaxial thin films have been deposited on LaAlO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The transient behavior of the thin film conductivity with the pressure changes was recorded as a function of temperature and partial oxygen pressure. The surface exchange coefficient k of the LSCO thin film was obtained from analysis of the electrical conductivity relaxation data. The measured surface exchange coefficient increases with temperature and with final pressure but is not sensitive to the initial pressure. After prolonged annealing at 900°C, the k value was found to have greatly increased. The mechanism of the dependence of the measured k on pressure is discussed.