Effects of surface chemistry and microstructure of electrolyte on oxygen reduction kinetics of solid oxide fuel cells

Park, Joong Sun; An, Jihwan; Lee, Min Hwan; Prinz, Friedrich B.; Lee, Wonyoung

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.06.149

Title: Effects of surface chemistry and microstructure of electrolyte on oxygen reduction kinetics of solid oxide fuel cells

Journal Article · Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Power Sources

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.06.149· OSTI ID:1244692

Park, Joong Sun ^[1]; An, Jihwan ^[2]; Lee, Min Hwan ^[3]; Prinz, Friedrich B. ^[4]; Lee, Wonyoung ^[5]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Seoul National Univ., of Science and Technology (Republic of Korea)
Univ. of California, Merced, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Sungkyunkwan Univ. (Republic of Korea)

In this study, we report systematic investigation of the surface properties of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolytes with the control of the grain boundary (GB) density at the surface, and its effects on electrochemical activities. The GB density of thin surface layers deposited on single crystal YSZ substrates is controlled by changing the annealing temperature (750-1450 °C). Higher oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) kinetics is observed in samples annealed at lower temperatures. The higher ORR activity is ascribed to the higher GB density at the YSZ surface where 'mobile' oxide ion vacancies are more populated. Meanwhile, oxide ion vacancies concurrently created with yttrium segregation at the surface at the higher annealing temperature are considered inactive to oxygen incorporation reactions. Our results provide additional insight into the interplay between the surface chemistry, microstructures, and electrochemical activity. They potentially provide important guidelines for engineering the electrolyte electrode interfaces of solid oxide fuel cells for higher electrochemical performance.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1244692

Journal Information:: Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 295, Issue C; ISSN 0378-7753

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 22 works

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Enhanced interface reactivity by a nanowrinkled functional layer for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells Lee, Jongseo; Hwang, Sangyeon; Ahn, Minwoo Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 7, Issue 37 https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ta04818a	journal	January 2019

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Title: Effects of surface chemistry and microstructure of electrolyte on oxygen reduction kinetics of solid oxide fuel cells

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