skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Enhancing grain boundary ionic conductivity in mixed ionic–electronic conductors

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7824· OSTI ID:1258650

Mixed ionic–electronic conductors are widely used in devices for energy conversion and storage. Grain boundaries in these materials have nanoscale spatial dimensions, which can generate substantial resistance to ionic transport due to dopant segregation. Here, we report the concept of targeted phase formation in a Ce0.8Gd0.2O2₋δ–CoFe2O4 composite that serves to enhance the grain boundary ionic conductivity. Using transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy approaches, we probe the grain boundary charge distribution and chemical environments altered by the phase reaction between the two constituents. The formation of an emergent phase successfully avoids segregation of the Gd dopant and depletion of oxygen vacancies at the Ce0.8Gd0.2O2₋δ–Ce0.8Gd0.2O2₋δ grain boundary. This results in superior grain boundary ionic conductivity as demonstrated by the enhanced oxygen permeation flux. Lastly, this work illustrates the control of mesoscale level transport properties in mixed ionic–electronic conductor composites through processing induced modifications of the grain boundary defect distribution.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Heterogeneous Functional Materials Center (HeteroFoaM); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001061; AC02-98CH10886; SC-0011270; DMR-1210792
OSTI ID:
1258650
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 158 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (57)

Space-Charge Limited Photocurrent journal April 2005
Don't Forget Long-Term Fundamental Research in Energy journal February 2007
Nanoionics: ion transport and electrochemical storage in confined systems journal November 2005
A high-performance cathode for the next generation of solid-oxide fuel cells journal September 2004
Future Directions of Membrane Gas Separation Technology journal March 2002
Perovskite Hollow-Fiber Membranes for the Production of Oxygen-Enriched Air journal October 2005
Bulk mixed ion electron conduction in amorphous gallium oxide causes memristive behaviour journal March 2014
Enhancing SOFC cathode performance by surface modification through infiltration journal January 2014
Tailoring gadolinium-doped ceria-based solid oxide fuel cells to achieve 2 W cm−2 at 550 °C journal June 2014
Lowering the Temperature of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells journal November 2011
Dense ceramic membranes for methane conversion journal July 2003
Physical Properties and Cation Arrangement of Oxides with Spinel Structures II. Electronic Conductivity journal April 1947
Ceramic ion conducting membranes journal October 1996
Electrical conductivity and dielectric behaviour of nanocrystalline NiFe 2 O 4 spinel journal March 2002
Blocking Grain Boundaries in Yttria-Doped and Undoped Ceria Ceramics of High Purity journal January 2003
High proton conduction in grain-boundary-free yttrium-doped barium zirconate films grown by pulsed laser deposition journal September 2010
Ionic conduction in space charge regions journal January 1995
Atomic Scale Verification of Oxide-Ion Vacancy Distribution near a Single Grain Boundary in YSZ journal September 2013
Large positive magnetoresistive effect in silicon induced by the space-charge effect journal February 2009
Microscopy of Structural Ceramics journal March 1997
A density functional study of defect migration in gadolinium doped ceria journal January 2010
Oxygen vacancy ordering in heavily rare-earth-doped ceria journal October 2006
Segregation Effects at Grain Boundaries in Fluorite-Structured Ceramics journal September 2002
Electrical properties of the grain boundaries of oxygen ion conductors: Acceptor-doped zirconia and ceria journal February 2006
Dopant-concentration dependence of grain-boundary conductivity in ceria: A space-charge analysis journal January 2009
Oxygen permeability of mixed-conducting composite membranes: effects of phase interaction journal April 2005
Preparation and Oxygen Permeability of Gd-Doped Ceria and Spinel-Type Ferrite Composites journal January 2002
Oxygen permeation properties and surface modification of acceptor-doped CeO2/MnFe2O4 composites journal December 2006
CO2-Stable and Cobalt-Free Dual-Phase Membrane for Oxygen Separation journal December 2010
Fast Oxygen Separation Through SO 2 - and CO 2 -Stable Dual-Phase Membrane Based on NiFe 2 O 4 –Ce 0.8 Tb 0.2 O 2-δ journal December 2013
Novel Cobalt-Free, Noble Metal-Free Oxygen-Permeable 40Pr 0.6 Sr 0.4 FeO 3-δ –60Ce 0.9 Pr 0.1 O 2−δ Dual-Phase Membrane journal May 2012
Micro-ionics: next generation power sources journal January 2009
Probing oxygen vacancy concentration and homogeneity in solid-oxide fuel-cell cathode materials on the subunit-cell level journal August 2012
High Coercive Field for Nanoparticles of CoFe2O4 in Amorphous Silica Sol–Gel journal October 2003
Evaluation of Li2O as an efficient sintering aid for gadolinia-doped ceria electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cells journal September 2014
Study of the Transport Properties of the Mixed Ionic Electronic Conductor Ce 1− x Tb x O 2−δ + Co ( x = 0.1, 0.2) and Evaluation As Oxygen-Transport Membrane journal May 2011
Chemical Structures and Performance of Perovskite Oxides journal July 2001
Connections between the electron-energy-loss spectra, the local electronic structure, and the physical properties of a material: A study of nickel aluminum alloys journal April 1998
Metallic and Insulating Oxide Interfaces Controlled by Electronic Correlations journal February 2011
Characterization of 3D interconnected microstructural network in mixed ionic and electronic conducting ceramic composites journal January 2014
Ionic Transport in Gd[sub 3]Fe[sub 5]O[sub 12]- and Y[sub 3]Fe[sub 5]O[sub 12]-Based Garnets journal January 2003
CO 2 -Tolerant Oxygen-Permeable Fe 2 O 3 -Ce 0.9 Gd 0.1 O 2-δ Dual Phase Membranes journal December 2011
Direct evidence of dopant segregation in Gd-doped ceria journal February 2011
Equations for transport in solid oxides and sulfides of transition metals journal January 1975
Electrical properties of ceria-based oxides and their application to solid oxide fuel cells journal May 1992
Oxygen permeation through a Ce0.8Sm0.2O2−δ–La0.8Sr0.2CrO3−δ dual-phase composite membrane journal September 2006
Origin of Space Charge in Grain Boundaries of Proton-Conducting BaZrO 3 journal November 2012
High spatially resolved cation concentration profile at the grain boundaries of Sc-doped BaZrO3 journal September 2014
Perovskite Hollow-Fiber Membranes for the Production of Oxygen-Enriched Air journal October 2005
Microscopy of Structural Ceramics book December 1996
Microscopy of Structural Ceramics book December 1996
A High-Performance Cathode for the Next Generation of Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells. journal November 2004
Future directions of membrane gas-separation technology journal October 2001
Grain size-dependent electrical conductivity of polycrystalline cerium oxide II: Space charge model journal February 2001
Growth of ternary oxides in the Gd2O3–Fe2O3 system. A diffusion couple study journal February 2002
Oxygen transport in Ce0.8Gd0.2O2−δ-based composite membranes journal June 2003
Depletion Layers and Domain Walls in Semiconducting Ferroelectric Thin Films journal December 2005

Cited By (24)

Perovskite Hollow Fibers with Precisely Controlled Cation Stoichiometry via One-Step Thermal Processing journal March 2017
Compelling Rejuvenated Catalytic Performance in Metallic Glasses journal September 2018
An Organic Mixed Ion-Electron Conductor for Power Electronics journal December 2015
High‐Performance Fuel Cells Based on In 2 O 3 –La/Pr‐Doped Ceria Semiconductor–Ionic Conductor Materials Electrolyte journal September 2019
Temperature-dependence of electrical properties for the ceramic composites based on potassium polytitanates of different chemical composition journal March 2018
Critical path-driven property and performance transitions in heterogeneous microstructures journal February 2017
A tailored double perovskite nanofiber catalyst enables ultrafast oxygen evolution journal February 2017
Enhanced carbon dioxide electrolysis at redox manipulated interfaces journal April 2019
Proton-assisted creation of controllable volumetric oxygen vacancies in ultrathin CeO2−x for pseudocapacitive energy storage applications journal June 2019
Rapid alignment of nanotomography data using joint iterative reconstruction and reprojection journal September 2017
Scheelite type Sr1−xBaxWO4 (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) for possible application in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell electrolytes journal June 2019
Thermochemically stable ceramic composite membranes based on Bi 2 O 3 for oxygen separation with high permeability journal January 2019
Interface engineering in solid state Li metal batteries by quasi-2D hybrid perovskites journal January 2018
Interfacial stability and ionic conductivity enhanced by dopant segregation in eutectic ceramics: the role of Gd segregation in doped CeO 2 /CoO and CeO 2 /NiO interfaces journal January 2020
Resistive switching behavior in oxygen ion irradiated TiO 2− x films journal January 2018
Effect of grain boundary and Ar–H2 atmosphere on electrical conductivity of bulk a-La2Mo2O9 studied by impedance and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy journal December 2018
Ultra-thin Hafnium doped ZnO films with enhanced optical transparency and electrical conductivity journal February 2019
Multimodal hard x-ray imaging with resolution approaching 10 nm for studies in material science journal March 2018
Defect segregation facilitates oxygen transport at fluorite UO 2 grain boundaries
  • Symington, A. R.; Molinari, M.; Brincat, N. A.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2152 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2019.0026
journal July 2019
An Interdisciplinary View of Interfaces: Perspectives Regarding Emergent Phase Formation journal October 2017
Prediction of interface structures and energies via virtual screening journal November 2016
Semiconductor Heterostructure SrTiO 3 /CeO 2 Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells journal November 2019
The sintering temperature effect on electrochemical properties of Ce0.8Sm0.05Ca0.15O2-δ (SCDC)-La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) heterostructure pellet journal May 2019
Study on Zinc Oxide-Based Electrolytes in Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells journal December 2017

Similar Records

Related Subjects