Publication date: 10th April 2024
Solid oxide electrolysis and fuel cells (SOEC/SOFC) have drawn much attention due to their outstanding efficiency and superior fuel flexibility [1-3]. However, a significant challenge in scaling SOEC/SOFC technologies is the degradation of cells during operation. To address this, advanced operando characterization needs to be developed, which may offer insights into the mechanisms behind cell degradation.
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) emerges as a powerful technique for the nondestructive investigation of degradation in the solid oxide cell, or its individual components [4]. Integrating EIS with operando transmission electron microscopy (TEM) allow us to perform detailed structural and compositional analyses during EIS testing. In previous research, we successfully achieved analysis of pure gadolinia-doped ceria (CGO) material in relevant gas environments, at elevated temperatures, and under electrical polarization inside a TEM, and introduced the EIS-TEM methodology. This was achieved by combining an environmental TEM (ETEM) with a heating-biasing holder and a special sample preparation procedure [5, 6].
Based on previous works, this study employs the EIS-TEM methodology to investigate a model solid oxide cell composed of CGO electrodes and an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte. The cell was fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) followed by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) processing. We determined the activation energies for YSZ ion transport and CGO surface reactions to be 0.9 eV and 0.5 eV, respectively, which are in close agreement with the literature. This study demonstrates the viability of conducting direct SOEC/SOFC cell tests within a TEM, including EIS analysis during operation, thereby providing profound insights into the reaction mechanisms of the cell.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 850850).
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.