In spite of various advantages of protonic ceramic fuel cells over conventional fuel cells, distinct scepticism currently remains about their applicability because of lower-than-predicted performance and difficulty with scale-up. These challenges mainly stem from the refractory nature of proton-conducting ceramic electrolytes and the low chemical stability of these materials during the sintering process. Here, we present the fabrication of a physically thin, structurally dense and chemically homogeneous electrolyte, BaCe_0.55Zr_0.3Y_0.15O_3-δ (BCZY3), through a facile anode-assisted densification of the electrolyte on a structurally and compositionally uniform anode support, which resulted in breakthroughs in performance and scalability. A BCZY3-based protonic ceramic fuel cell with a size of 5 × 5 cm² exhibits an area-specific ohmic resistance of 0.09 Ω cm² and delivers a power as high as 20.8 W per single cell at 600 °C.

尽管质子陶瓷燃料电池相对于常规燃料电池具有多种优势，但由于性能低于预期且难以按比例放大，因此目前对它们的适用性仍存在明显的怀疑。这些挑战主要源于质子传导陶瓷电解质的难熔特性以及这些材料在烧结过程中的低化学稳定性。在这里，我们介绍了一种物理上稀薄，结构致密且化学均一的电解质的制备，BaCe _0.55 Zr _0.3 Y _0.15 O _{3 - δ}（BCZY3），通过在结构和组成上均一的阳极载体上对电解质进行便捷的阳极辅助致密化，从而实现了性能和可扩展性方面的突破。尺寸为5×5 cm ²的基于BCZY3的质子陶瓷燃料电池在600°C时的单位面积欧姆电阻为0.09Ωcm ²，每个单元的输出功率高达20.8W。