ABSTRACT Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer a promising solution for renewable energy conversion; however, their widespread adoption is hindered by the lack of fuel electrodes that combine high catalytic activity, redox stability, coking resistance, long‐term durability, and mechanical toughness. Herein, a heteroepitaxial GdO x nanolayer, in situ grown on polycrystalline fluorite oxides using a scalable, cost‐efficient, strain‐driven method, is proposed as a multi‐functional fuel electrode. This design achieves polarization resistances as low as 0.091 and 0.194 Ω cm 2 under hydrogen and methane conditions at 800°C, respectively, exhibiting excellent redox stability, superior coking resistance, and remarkable long‐term stability. The high concentration of oxygen vacancies promotes lattice softening, enhancing the fracture toughness to 4.3 MPa cm 1/2 . This work introduces a novel paradigm for fuel oxidation catalysts, enhances the multi‐functional performance of materials, simplifies SOFC system complexity, and provides valuable insights into the design of next‐generation catalysts.
Pang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.