A novel cobalt-free perovskite zinc-doped lanthanum strontium iron oxide (La0.8Sr0.2ZnxFe1-xO3-delta, LSZF, x = 0.1-0.3) is synthesized and evaluated as cathode material for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC) with samarium doped ceria (SDC) electrolyte. LSZF cathode at x = 0.2 composition demonstrates the remarkable electrochemical activity at intermediate temperature (550 degrees C): such as, high electrical conductivity (13.63 S cm(-1)), excellent thermal stability with SDC electrolyte (12.10 mu K-1), high surface area (4.52 m(2) g(-1)), extremely reduced area specific resistance (0.69 Omega.cm(-2)) and low activation energy (0.117 eV). Furthermore, single fuel cells are fabricated using LSZF as a cathode, which exhibits the excellent performance by achieving the high power density of 409 mW cm(-2) under natural gas as a fuel and ambient air as an oxidant at 550 degrees C with good stability over 10 h. All experimental results indicate that the LSZF is a promising cathode material for natural gas based intermediate temperature fuel cell applications. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.