Nanoparticle exsolution electrochemical switching in perovskite fibers for solid oxide fuel cell electrodes

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2023-06, Vol.11 (24), p.137-1315
• Main Authors: Xu, Min, Cao, Ran, Wu, Shitao, Lee, JinGoo, Chen, Di, Irvine, John T. S
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/d3ta00535f

Metal nanoparticles support materials play a crucial role in many fields, including energy conversion/storage, catalysis and photochemistry. Here, the exsolution is reported as an in situ method to fabricate metal nanoparticles supported on perovskite (La 0.52 Ca 0.28 Ni 0.06 Ti 0.94 O 3 ) powder and fiber materials. Significantly decreased polarisation resistance can be achieved by applying electrochemical switching within 3 min on the fiber electrode fuel cell to facilitate the exsolution. The fuel cell activated by electrochemical switching under wet hydrogen shows a promising performance with a maximum output power density of about 380 mW cm −2 at 900 °C in hydrogen. The phase-field model shows that the exsolution under extreme low oxygen partial pressure induced by electrochemical switching performs faster nucleation than the chemical-reduced case. This work provides a further understanding of electrochemically driven exsolution with fiber structure platform and simulation with phase-field models. Metal nanoparticles supported on powder and fiber perovskites via exsolution. The fiber shows a weight loss about 4.4 times higher than the powder sample. These have been applied in solid oxide fuel cell configuration.