Electrokinetic Proton Transport in Triple (H+ /O2- /e- ) Conducting Oxides as a Key Descriptor for Highly Efficient Protonic Ceramic Fuel Cells.

Recently, triple (H+ /O2- /e- ) conducting oxides (TCOs) have shown tremendous potential to improve the performance of various types of energy conversion and storage applications. The systematic understanding of the TCO is limited by the difficulty of properly identifying the proton movement in the TCO. Herein, the isotope exchange diffusion profile (IEDP) method is employed via time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry to evaluate kinetic properties of proton in the layered perovskite-type TCOs, PrBa0.5 Sr0.5 Co1.5 Fe0.5 O5+ δ (PBSCF).Within the strategy, the PBSCF shows two orders of magnitude higher proton tracer diffusion coefficient (D* H , 1.04 × 10-6  cm2 s-1 at 550 °C) than its oxygen tracer diffusion coefficient at even higher temperature range (D* O, 1.9 × 10-8  cm2 s-1 at 590 °C). Also, the surface exchange coefficient of a proton (k*H ) is successfully obtained in the value of 2.60 × 10-7  cm s-1 at 550 °C. In this research, an innovative way is provided to quantify the proton kinetic properties (D* H and k*H ) of TCOs being a crucial indicator for characterizing the electrochemical behavior of proton and the mechanism of electrode reactions.

Highly active dry methane reforming catalysts with boosted in situ grown Ni-Fe nanoparticles on perovskite via atomic layer deposition.

With the need for more stable and active metal catalysts for dry reforming of methane, in situ grown nanoparticles using exsolution are a promising approach. However, in conventional exsolution, most nanoparticles remain underneath the surface because of the sluggish diffusion rate of cations. Here, we report the atomic layer deposition (ALD)-combined topotactic exsolution on La0.6Sr0.2Ti0.85Ni0.15O3-δ toward developing active and durable catalysts. The uniform and quantitatively controlled layer of Fe via ALD facilitates the topotactic exsolution, increasing finely dispersed nanoparticles. The introduction of Fe2O3 yields the formation of Ni-Fe alloy owing to the spontaneous alloy formation energy of -0.43 eV, leading to an enhancement of the catalytic activity for dry methane reforming with a prolonged stability of 410 hours. Overall, the abundant alloy nanocatalysts via ALD mark an important step forward in the evolution of exsolution and its application to the field of energy utilization.