Electrochemical mechanisms of an advanced low-temperature fuel cell with a SrTiO₃ electrolyte

Abstract

The electrochemical mechanisms and performance of a symmetrical low-temperature SOFC with a single oxide as the electrolyte are investigated here.

Junction and energy band on novel semiconductor-based fuel cells

“…Such unique structure and electron states confine protons in the shell region forming super proton shuttles, leading to excellent proton conductivity of almost one order of magnitude higher than that of SNO and other proton ceramic conductors. Such core-shell homojunction structures have also been observed in perovskite semiconductors, such as SrTiO 3 and La-doped SrTiO 3 (Chen et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2019). These works shed light on a general methodology to develop distinctive interfacial structures and properties using semiconductor heterostructures.…”

“…Hence, there exist two driving forces for ionic transport in SBFCs, one is the chemical concentration gradient and the other is the BIEF force (Ganesh et al, 2019;Mushtaq et al, 2019). In addition, SBFCs are built on the semiconductors or SIMs possessing mixed ionic and electronic conduction, which can build up the three-phase boundary (TPB) to promote the HOR and ORR processes (Meng et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2019).…”

Progress in proton‐conducting oxides as electrolytes for low‐temperature solid oxide fuel cells: From materials to devices

“…Semiconductor materials with proton‐conducting properties could play an important role in future advanced PCFC technology. Recently, many semiconductor oxides have been explored as novel electrolytes for efficient fuel cells 160−167 . These new developments from traditional theory to innovative concepts have created a promising research frontier.…”

“…The proton conductivity of this material achieved 0.1 S cm −1 at 500°C, with a power density of 160 mW cm −2 based on a thick (0.79 mm) electrolyte. Additionally, several semiconductor electrolyte systems (eg, SrTiO 3 , 161 TiO 2 , 162 and BaCo 0.4 Fe 0.4 Zr 0.1 Y 0.1 O 3‐δ ‐ZnO composite 164 ) are based on an energy band alignment mechanism to eliminate electronic conductivity, providing new insight into the development of electrolytes. Namely, the energy band structure is carefully designed to tune (suppress) the transportation of electrons through the electrolyte in fuel cell devices, similar to some other semiconductor devices, for example, solar cells.…”

Accelerated design and discovery of perovskites with high conductivity for energy applications through machine learning

“…The studied perovskites have already been reported by many researchers for various energy applications in the past. For example, BaMoO 3 has been studied for hydrogen evolution reaction 92 , and SrTiO 3 has been reported for low temperature fuel cell electrolyte 93 . Addition of transition metal, Ru to La 0.7 Sr 0.3 CoO enhances the electrocatalytic behavior 94 , indicating ruthenates to be possibly used as oxide or mixed ionic-electronic conductors electrodes for fuel cells 95 .…”