What is it about?

We discovered that semiconductor LiNiCuZnOx and ionic GDC composite possessing excellent ionic conductivity, 0.08 S/cm at 600 C, which has succeeded in advanced low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LTSOFCs) by delivering a remarkable electrochemical performance of 628 mW/cm2 at 580 C, significantly higher than that of conventional three-component (anode/electrolyte/cathode) fuel cells. Interestingly, though both electronic and ionic conductions co-exist in this composite electrolyte, the fuel cell device does not show any short circuiting problem, but high power output.

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Why is it important?

Conventional ionic conductors developed for SOFC electrolytes are focusing on ionic conductors based on structural doping, e,g, yttrium stabilized (doped) zirconia (YSZ) or SDC/GDC (samarium/gadolinium doped ceria). This work discovered a fact that semiconductor oxide: LiNiCuZnOx and ionic GDC composite can deliver even higher ionic conductivity than that of the pure GDC. Though significant electronic conductivity in such composite as the electrolyte in fuel cell, no electronic short circuit and power loss, but opposite situation: standard OCV and enhanced power output. The results indicate a new approach to change conventional ionic material design and device electrochemical science principles. Based on this work, various new functional ionic conductors based on semiconductor heterostructure composites and new advanced LTSOFCs will be developed and demonstrated in latter research and development.

Perspectives

Semiconductor ionic properties and their heterostructures are a new emerging frontier are deserved very much attention and research efforts for new generation advanced energy storage and conversion devices. Refs: [1] Lan, R.; Tao, S., Novel Proton Conductors in the Layered Oxide Material LixlAl0.5Co0.5O2. Advanced Energy Materials 4, 1301683-8 (2014). [2] Zhou, Y.; Guan, X.; Zhou, H.; Ramadoss, K.; Adam, S.; Liu, H.; Lee, S.; Shi, J.; Tsuchiya, M.; Fong, D. D.; Ramanathan, S., Strongly correlated perovskite fuel cells. Nature 534, 231-234 (2016). [3] Zhang, Z.; Schwanz, D.; Narayanan, B.; Kotiuga, M.; Dura, J. A.; Cherukara, M.; Zhou, H.; Freeland, J. W.; Li, J.; Sutarto, R.; He, F.; Wu, C.; Zhu, J.; Sun, Y.; Ramadoss, K.; Nonnenmann, S. S.; Yu, N.; Comin, R.; Rabe, K. M.; Sankaranarayanan, S. K. R. S.; Ramanathan, S., Perovskite nickelates as electric-field sensors in salt water. Nature 553, 68–72 (2018) [4] Yifei Sun et al, Strongly correlated perovskite lithium ion shuttles, PINAS, 2018, published online, doi/10.1073/pnas.1805029115. [5] Bin Zhu, Sining, Yun, Peter Lund, Semiconductor-ionic materials could play an important role in advanced fuel-to-electricity conversion, Int J Energy Res. 2018;1–3. DOI: 10.1002/er.4105

Bin Zhu
Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan

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This page is a summary of: Functional semiconductor–ionic composite GDC–KZnAl/LiNiCuZnOx for single-component fuel cell, RSC Advances, January 2014, Royal Society of Chemistry,
DOI: 10.1039/c3ra47783e.
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