Publication date: 10th April 2024
Interfaces are key to the properties of ionic materials. In particular, space charges at grain boundaries dictate grain boundary ionic resistance. In this talk, we use multislice electron ptychography to characterize atomic structure and space charge potential at grain boundaries in ionic conductors simultaneously. Existing methods for measuring space charge potentials at grain boundaries have significant limitations. For example, quantifying the potential present in space charge regions is challenging because these features are small—on the order of nanometers. Bulk measurement techniques like electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) fail to account for the diversity of grain boundaries and grain boundary properties present in bulk specimens. Existing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom-probe tomography (APT) techniques are well-suited to chemical analysis of grain boundaries but provide only an indirect or semi-quantitative estimation of space charge potential. In this talk, we use multislice electron ptychography to characterize space charges at grain boundaries in Gd-doped CeO2. Multislice ptychography provides a 3D, quantitative measurement of potential, and is sensitive both to the high spatial frequency, strongly scattering atomic cores as well as the diffuse, weaker space charge potential—unlike other electron microscopy techniques. This allows the simultaneous reconstruction of atomic-resolution structural features and local space charge potential. Applied to ionic conductors, this allows observation of the coupling between grain boundary structure and electrochemical properties and, in turn, provides a path towards the design of materials with targeted interfacial properties.
The authors acknowledge support from the Department of Homeland Security Advanced Research Initiative (22CWDARI00046-01-00). This work was carried out in part using the facilities at MIT.nano.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.