Revealing local grain boundary chemistry and correlating it with local mass transport in mixed-conducting perovskite electrodes
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Grain boundary (GB) mass transport, and chemistry exert a pronounced influence on both the performance and stability of electrodes for solid oxide electrochemical cells. Lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite (LSCF6428) is applied as a model mixed ionic and electronic conducting (MIEC) perovskite oxide. The cation-vacancy distribution at the GBs is studied at both single and multi-grain scales using high-resolution characterization techniques and computational approaches. The accumulation of oxygen vacancies (V⋅⋅O) in the GB region, rather than necessarily at the GB core, results in an enhancement of the oxygen diffusivity by 3 – 4 orders of magnitude along the GBs (Dgb). At 350 °C, the oxygen tracer diffusion coefficient (D*) is measured as 2.5 × 10−14 cm2 s−1. The Dgb is determined to be 2.8 × 10−10 cm2 s−1 assuming a crystallographic GB width (δcrystal) of 1 nm, and 2.5 × 10−11 cm2 s−1 using a chemically measured δchem of 11.10 nm by atom probe tomography (APT). The origin of the concomitant changes in the cation composition is also investigate. In addition to the host cations, strong Na segregation is detected at all the GBs examined. Despite the low (ppm) level of this impurity, its presence can affect the space charge potential (Φ0). This, in turn, will influence the evolution of GB chemistry.
Date Issued
2024-12-12
Date Acceptance
2024-10-01
Citation
Small, 2024, 20 (50)
ISSN
1613-6810
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Small
Volume
20
Issue
50
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.202404702
Subjects
ceramics
Chemistry
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chemistry, Physical
DIFFUSION KINETICS
ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY
EQUILIBRIUM
EXCHANGE
grain boundaries
IMPEDANCE
INTERFACES
Materials Science
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
mixed ionic electronic conductors
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
OXIDE
oxygen diffusion
Physical Sciences
Physics
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
solid oxide fuel cells
Technology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
2404702
Date Publish Online
2024-10-04