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Title: High stability SrTi1-xFexO3-δ electrodes for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Chemistry. A
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ta07548h· OSTI ID:1599356

We report that Sr(Ti1-xFex)O3-δ (STF) has recently been explored as an oxygen electrode for solid oxide electrochemical cells (SOCs). Model thin film electrode studies show oxygen surface exchange rates that generally improve with increasing Fe content when x < 0.5, and are comparable to the best Co-containing perovskite electrode materials. Recent results on porous electrodes with the specific composition Sr(Ti0.3Fe0.7)O3-δ show excellent electrode performance and stability, but other compositions have not been tested. Here we report results for porous electrodes with a range of compositions from x = 0.5 to 0.9. The polarization resistance decreases with increasing Fe content up to x = 0.7, but increases for further increases in x. This results from the interaction of two effects – the oxygen solid state diffusion coefficient increases with increasing x, but the electrode surface area and surface oxygen exchange rate decrease due to increased sinterability and Sr surface segregation for the Fe-rich compositions. Symmetric cells showed no degradation during 1000 h life tests at 700 °C even at a current density of 1.5 A cm-2, showing that all the STF electrode compositions worked stably in both fuel cell mode and electrolysis modes. Lastly, the excellent stability may be explained by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) results showing that the amount of surface segregated Sr did not change during the long-term testing, and by relatively low polarization resistances that help avoid electrode delamination.

Research Organization:
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO); National Science Foundation (NSF); China Scholarship Council; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016965; EE450008079; DMR-1506925; DMR-1545907; NNCI-1542205; DMR-1121262; 201606285002; 51602248; EE0008079
OSTI ID:
1599356
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1560882; OSTI ID: 1658927; OSTI ID: 2229645
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Chemistry. A, Vol. 7, Issue 37; ISSN 2050-7488
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 30 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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