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Synergistic Coupling of Proton Conductors BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3–δ and La2Ce2O7 to Create Chemical Stable, Interface Active Electrolyte for Steam Electrolysis Cells

Journal Article · · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV (United States)
  2. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV (United States); Hebei University of Engineering, Handan (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations
For the first time, proton conductors BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3–δ (BZCYYb) and La2Ce2O7 (LCO) are combined to create an interface active and steam-tolerant electrolyte for high-performance proton-conducting solid oxide electrolysis cells. LCO shows good chemical compatibility with BZCYYb. The readily fabricated LCO/BZCYYb bilayer electrolyte can be densified at a temperature of as low as 1300 °C versus ~1600 °C for the benchmark steam-stable BaZr0.8Y0.2O3–δ electrolyte. With Pr2NiO4+δ as the anode and Ni as the cathode catalyst, this bilayer electrolyte cell yields a current density of 975 and 300 mA/cm2 under a 1.3 V applied potential at 700 and 600 °C, respectively. This performance is among the best of all H-SOECs equipped with a chemically stable electrolyte so far. A BZCYYb layer in the bilayer electrolyte promotes the hydrogen evolution reaction at the cathode side, resulting in a 108% improvement over the cell without this layer. The LCO layer, on the other hand, effectively protects this functional BZCYYb layer from the high concentration of steam in a practical SOEC operation condition. The cell without the LCO layer shows degradation in terms of an increased electrolyzing potential from 1.07 to 1.29 V during a constant 400 mA/cm2 operation at 700 °C. In contrast, the bilayer electrolyte cell maintains the same electrolyzing potential of 1.13 V under the same conduction for a 102 h operation. These findings demonstrate that this synergic bilayer electrolyte design is a vital strategy to overcome the dilemma between performance and stability faced by the current benchmark Zr- or Ce-rich Ba(CeZr)O3–δ electrolysis cells to achieve excellent performance and stability at the same time.
Research Organization:
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0008378
OSTI ID:
2479408
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1613515
OSTI ID: 2479428
Journal Information:
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 11; ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BZCYYb stability
La2Ce2O7
barrier layer
electrochemical cells
electrodes
electrolytes
layers
proton conductors
steam electrolysis
triple-conducting
vesicles