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The extensive explorations of potential cathode materials are prominently critical for the rapid development of high performance solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Herein, we develop a novel Nb and Cu co-doped SrCoO 3-δ (SCNC) cathode base on solid state reaction, which exhibits decent compatibility with gadolinium doped cerium oxide (GDC) electrolyte. The SCNC is successfully stabilized with cubic structure at room temperature when incorporating of small amount of high valence Nb5+. Meanwhile, the oxygen vacancy concentration of SCNC is efficiently improved with the addition of Cu. The Nb and Cu co-doping also substantially promotes the electronic conductivity, achieving 550 S cm−1 for the optical doped SrCo 0.85 Nb 0.05 Cu 0.10 O 3-δ (SCNC10) at 400 °C. In addition, the polarization of SCNC is remarkably reduced, reaching as low as 0.021 Ω cm2 for SCNC10 at 700 °C. The activation energy for reaction is also significantly lowered to 0.78 eV. The reaction order m is deduced to be about 0.30, implying that the rate determination step for SCNC10 is the charge transfer reaction. The peak power density of the single cell reaches 780 mW cm−2 at 800 °C. All these outstanding performances demonstrate that SCNC is a promising cathode for SOFCs when operating at intermediate temperature (IT). (a)The EIS of SCNC10 at different oxygen pressure at 700 °C; (b)the relationship of lnRp to ln (Po 2) for SCNC10 measured at 700 °C. The reaction order m is about 0.30, suggesting that the RDS for SCNC10 is probably to be the charge transfer reaction. Image 1 • A novel Nb and Cu co-doped SrCoO 3-δ improved its oxygen vacancy concentration. • The ASR for SCNC10 was only 0.021 Ω cm−2 at 700 °C, with the activation for reaction is only 0.78 eV. • The reaction orders suggest that the rate determine step is probably to be the charge transfer reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]