Graded-Microstructure Bundled Cathode Architecture for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Providing Integrated Suppression of Chromium Poisoning, Strontium Surface Segregation, and Strontium-Zirconate Barrier Formation

Technical Disclosure 01. Defensive publication under 35 U.S.C. §102, effective 21 April 2026. The subject matter of this disclosure is an integrated cathode-stack architecture for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) that addresses, in a single co-fired stack, three compounding cathode-side degradation mechanisms: volatile-chromium poisoning of the active cathode, strontium surface segregation in strontium-doped perovskite cathodes, and strontium-zirconate formation at the cathode-to-electrolyte barrier. The architecture comprises a graded barium-rich perovskite getter sublayer in the cathode air channel, a praseodymium-oxide-infiltrated A-site-deficient (La,Sr)(Co,Fe)O3-δ cathode, and a low-temperature-densified gadolinium-doped-ceria barrier interposed between the cathode and the yttria-stabilized-zirconia electrolyte. Composition windows, process parameters, alternative embodiments, a worked example, and numbered figures are given in the attached PDF. This document is published as prior art under 35 U.S.C. §102 for defensive purposes. The integrated cathode-stack architecture, and all compositional windows, process parameters, alternative embodiments, worked examples, and variants enumerated herein, including unrecited obvious variations a person of ordinary skill in the art would contemplate, are hereby disclosed as prior art. This record is intended to place the disclosed subject matter in the public domain and to preclude the issuance of valid patent claims on this subject matter filed after the publication date. No patent applications have been filed by the filer on the disclosed subject matter, and the filer expressly disclaims any future patent filing on the disclosed architecture, components, compositional windows, process parameters, alternative embodiments, worked example, or covered variants. Primary venue: coracleresearch.com/research/01-bloom-cathode/disclosure.html Companion narrative: Research Note 01: Chromium poisoning and the 4.9-year Bloom stack