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Title: Strongly correlated perovskite fuel cells

Journal Article · · Nature (London)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17653· OSTI ID:1261104
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6]
  1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS), X-ray Science Division
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
  4. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  5. SiEnergy Systems, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  6. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). School of Materials Engineering

Fuel cells convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy with high efficiencies and environmental benefits, as compared with traditional heat engines. Yttria-stabilized zirconia is perhaps the material with the most potential as an electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), owing to its stability and near-unity ionic transference number. Although there exist materials with superior ionic conductivity, they are often limited by their ability to suppress electronic leakage when exposed to the reducing environment at the fuel interface. Such electronic leakage reduces fuel cell power output and the associated chemo-mechanical stresses can also lead to catastrophic fracture of electrolyte membranes. Here we depart from traditional electrolyte design that relies on cation substitution to sustain ionic conduction. Instead, we use a perovskite nickelate as an electrolyte with high initial ionic and electronic conductivity. Since many such oxides are also correlated electron systems, we can suppress the electronic conduction through a filling-controlled Mott transition induced by spontaneous hydrogen incorporation. Using such a nickelate as the electrolyte in free-standing membrane geometry, we demonstrate a low-temperature micro-fabricated SOFC with high performance. The ionic conductivity of the nickelate perovskite is comparable to the best-performing solid electrolytes in the same temperature range, with a very low activation energy. The results present a design strategy for high-performance materials exhibiting emergent properties arising from strong electron correlations.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences and Engineering Division; US Army Research Office (ARO); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; W911NF-14-1-0348; W911NF-14-1-0669; FA9550-12-1-0189
OSTI ID:
1261104
Journal Information:
Nature (London), Vol. 534, Issue 7606; ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 328 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Metal-to-insulator transition in SmNiO 3 induced by chemical doping: a first principles study journal January 2018
Interfacial Octahedral Manipulation Imparts Hysteresis‐Free Metal to Insulator Transition in Ultrathin Nickelate Heterostructure journal July 2019
Correlation between Ru–O hybridization and the oxygen evolution reaction in ruthenate epitaxial thin films journal January 2019
Exploring the Influence of Halogen Coordination Effect of Stable Bimetallic MOFs on Oxygen Evolution Reaction journal October 2019
Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Activity by Tuning Both the Oxygen Vacancy and Orbital Occupancy of B‐Site Metal Cation in NdNiO 3 journal June 2019
Correlation transports at p- / n- types in electron metastable perovskite family of rare-earth nickelates journal February 2020
Double Perovskite LaFe x Ni 1− x O 3 Nanorods Enable Efficient Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis journal January 2019
Structurally triggered metal-insulator transition in rare-earth nickelates journal November 2017
Semiconductor TiO 2 thin film as an electrolyte for fuel cells journal January 2019
Semiconductor-ionic materials could play an important role in advanced fuel-to-electricity conversion journal June 2018
Frank-Turnbull dopant migration may enhance heteroatom diffusivity: Evidence from alkali-doped Cu(In,Ga) Se 2 journal May 2019
Study on Zinc Oxide-Based Electrolytes in Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells journal December 2017
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Spectroscopic Studies on the Metal-Insulator Transition Mechanism in Correlated Materials journal May 2018
Recent Progress on Advanced Materials for Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells Operating Below 500 °C journal June 2017
Graphene/Strontium Titanate: Approaching Single Crystal–Like Charge Transport in Polycrystalline Oxide Perovskite Nanocomposites through Grain Boundary Engineering text January 2020
Electron‐Doping Mottronics in Strongly Correlated Perovskite journal December 2019
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A computational study of hydrogen doping induced metal-to-insulator transition in CaFeO 3 , SrFeO 3 , BaFeO 3 and SmMnO 3 journal January 2019
Revealing the role of lattice distortions in the hydrogen-induced metal-insulator transition of SmNiO3 journal February 2019
Electrochemically Driven Giant Resistive Switching in Perovskite Nickelates Heterostructures journal August 2017
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Double Perovskite LaFe x Ni 1− x O 3 Nanorods Enable Efficient Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis journal January 2019
Revealing the role of lattice distortions in the hydrogen-induced metal-insulator transition of SmNiO3 text January 2019
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