Surface restructuring of a perovskite-type air electrode for reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells

Kai Pei; Yucun Zhou; Kang Xu; Hua Zhang; Yong Ding; Bote Zhao; Wei Yuan; Kotaro Sasaki; YongMan Choi; Yu Chen; Meilin Liu

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29866-5

Surface restructuring of a perovskite-type air electrode for reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells

Kai Pei, Yucun Zhou, Kang Xu, Hua Zhang, Yong Ding, Bote Zhao, Wei Yuan, Kotaro Sasaki, YongMan Choi^*, Yu Chen^*, Meilin Liu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute of Photonic System

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

119 Scopus citations

Abstract

Reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (R-PCECs) are ideally suited for efficient energy storage and conversion; however, one of the limiting factors to high performance is the poor stability and insufficient electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction and evolution of the air electrode exposed to the high concentration of steam. Here we report our findings in enhancing the electrochemical activity and durability of a perovskite-type air electrode, Ba0.9Co0.7Fe0.2Nb0.1O3-δ (BCFN), via a water-promoted surface restructuring process. Under properly-controlled operating conditions, the BCFN electrode is naturally restructured to an Nb-rich BCFN electrode covered with Nb-deficient BCFN nanoparticles. When used as the air electrode for a fuel-electrode-supported R-PCEC, good performances are demonstrated at 650 °C, achieving a peak power density of 1.70 W cm−2 in the fuel cell mode and a current density of 2.8 A cm−2 at 1.3 V in the electrolysis mode while maintaining reasonable Faradaic efficiencies and promising durability.

Original language	English
Article number	2207
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29866-5
State	Published - Apr 2022

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-022-29866-5

Cite this

@article{17d19bd73bc549149b6b7dabe5ca1599,

title = "Surface restructuring of a perovskite-type air electrode for reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells",

abstract = "Reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (R-PCECs) are ideally suited for efficient energy storage and conversion; however, one of the limiting factors to high performance is the poor stability and insufficient electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction and evolution of the air electrode exposed to the high concentration of steam. Here we report our findings in enhancing the electrochemical activity and durability of a perovskite-type air electrode, Ba0.9Co0.7Fe0.2Nb0.1O3-δ (BCFN), via a water-promoted surface restructuring process. Under properly-controlled operating conditions, the BCFN electrode is naturally restructured to an Nb-rich BCFN electrode covered with Nb-deficient BCFN nanoparticles. When used as the air electrode for a fuel-electrode-supported R-PCEC, good performances are demonstrated at 650 °C, achieving a peak power density of 1.70 W cm−2 in the fuel cell mode and a current density of 2.8 A cm−2 at 1.3 V in the electrolysis mode while maintaining reasonable Faradaic efficiencies and promising durability.",

author = "Kai Pei and Yucun Zhou and Kang Xu and Hua Zhang and Yong Ding and Bote Zhao and Wei Yuan and Kotaro Sasaki and YongMan Choi and Yu Chen and Meilin Liu",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1038/s41467-022-29866-5",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Surface restructuring of a perovskite-type air electrode for reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells

AU - Pei, Kai

AU - Zhou, Yucun

AU - Xu, Kang

AU - Zhang, Hua

AU - Ding, Yong

AU - Zhao, Bote

AU - Yuan, Wei

AU - Sasaki, Kotaro

AU - Choi, YongMan

AU - Chen, Yu

AU - Liu, Meilin

PY - 2022/4

Y1 - 2022/4

N2 - Reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (R-PCECs) are ideally suited for efficient energy storage and conversion; however, one of the limiting factors to high performance is the poor stability and insufficient electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction and evolution of the air electrode exposed to the high concentration of steam. Here we report our findings in enhancing the electrochemical activity and durability of a perovskite-type air electrode, Ba0.9Co0.7Fe0.2Nb0.1O3-δ (BCFN), via a water-promoted surface restructuring process. Under properly-controlled operating conditions, the BCFN electrode is naturally restructured to an Nb-rich BCFN electrode covered with Nb-deficient BCFN nanoparticles. When used as the air electrode for a fuel-electrode-supported R-PCEC, good performances are demonstrated at 650 °C, achieving a peak power density of 1.70 W cm−2 in the fuel cell mode and a current density of 2.8 A cm−2 at 1.3 V in the electrolysis mode while maintaining reasonable Faradaic efficiencies and promising durability.

AB - Reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (R-PCECs) are ideally suited for efficient energy storage and conversion; however, one of the limiting factors to high performance is the poor stability and insufficient electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction and evolution of the air electrode exposed to the high concentration of steam. Here we report our findings in enhancing the electrochemical activity and durability of a perovskite-type air electrode, Ba0.9Co0.7Fe0.2Nb0.1O3-δ (BCFN), via a water-promoted surface restructuring process. Under properly-controlled operating conditions, the BCFN electrode is naturally restructured to an Nb-rich BCFN electrode covered with Nb-deficient BCFN nanoparticles. When used as the air electrode for a fuel-electrode-supported R-PCEC, good performances are demonstrated at 650 °C, achieving a peak power density of 1.70 W cm−2 in the fuel cell mode and a current density of 2.8 A cm−2 at 1.3 V in the electrolysis mode while maintaining reasonable Faradaic efficiencies and promising durability.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-29866-5

DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-29866-5

M3 - Article

C2 - 35459865

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 13

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 2207

ER -

Surface restructuring of a perovskite-type air electrode for reversible protonic ceramic electrochemical cells

Abstract

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this