A combinatorial (La,Sr)(Mn,Co,Fe)O3 library for screening oxygen electrodes in solid oxide fuel cells: high throughput for performance and thermal degradation

Juande Sirvent^a, Giulio Cordaro^b, Carlota Bozal-Ginesta^a^,^c, Sarah Fearn^d, Zijie Sha^d, Kosova Kreka^a, Juan Carlos González-Rosillo^a, Lisa Laa^a, Marc Núñez^a, Francesco Chiabrera^a, Alex Morata^a, Guilhem Dezanneau^b, John Kilner^d^,^e, Federico Baiutti^a, Albert Tarancón^a^,^f

^aDepartment of Advanced Materials for Energy, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, Sant Adrià del Besòs, Barcelona 08930, Spain

^bUniversité Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, CNRS, Lab. SPMS, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

^cDepartments of Chemistry and Computer Science, University of Toronto, Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, 80 St George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6, Canada

^dDepartment of Materials, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BP, United Kingdom

^eInternational Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER), Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

^fICREA, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain

Proceedings of 24th International Conference on Solid State Ionics (SSI24)

Advanced characterisation techniques: fundamental and devices

London, United Kingdom, 2024 July 14th - 19th

Organizers: John Kilner and Stephen Skinner

Oral, Juande Sirvent, presentation 372
Publication date: 10th April 2024

Investigating materials applied as oxygen electrodes in solid oxide cells (SOCs) is of great interest for energy sustainability. While SOCs are the most efficient technology for energy conversion, the materials utilized for the oxygen reaction are one of the main bottlenecks for their implementation in real systems, both in terms of performance and durability. The need to extend the material space explored to full material libraries is of critical interest in this field. Employing thin film combinatorial methods for the simultaneous growth of complete material libraries has been proven effective for obtaining self-sustained experimental datasets^1,2. These approaches require the development of advanced material fabrication and characterization techniques.

In this contribution we have carried out a thorough study of a complete thin film (La,Sr)(Mn,Co,Fe)O₃ (LSMCF) material library fabricated by combinatorial pulsed laser deposition. Combinatorial deposition allows the full characterization of the material library under the same conditions, reducing experimental uncertainty associated to sample variability. The library was characterized by XY-resolved X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry for mapping the compositional, crystallographic, structural and electronic properties The oxygen exchange kinetics at 400 °C was probed by means of isotopic exchange depth profiling coupled with secondary ion mass spectrometry (IEDP-SIMS). The electrochemical performance was studied by impedance spectroscopy (EIS), resulting in mapping the activation energies and area specific resistances for the oxygen reduction reaction in the 675-750 °C temperature range. The screening carried out represents an extended analysis covering the overall properties of the compositional family. Additionally, a series of selected material library compositions have been studied in terms of their stability against thermal degradation. Microstructural characterization, surface chemistry and cation depth profile analyses have been employed for analyzing the film degradation in terms of migration of strontium and formation of secondary species. The results indicate that the addition of Mn to LSCF-based electrodes plays a substantial role in the stabilization of strontium segregation phenomena throughout the material library.

References:

[1] Usiskin, R. E.; Maruyama, S.; Kucharczyk, C. J.; Takeuchi, I.; Haile, S. M. Probing the Reaction Pathway in (La0.8Sr0.2)0.95MnO3+δ Using Libraries of Thin Film Microelectrodes. J. Mater. Chem. A 2015, 3 (38), 19330–19345

[2] Saranya, A. M.; Morata, A.; Pla, D.; Burriel, M.; Chiabrera, F.; Garbayo, I.; Hornés, A.; Kilner, J. A.; Tarancón, A. Unveiling the Outstanding Oxygen Mass Transport Properties of Mn-Rich Perovskites in Grain Boundary-Dominated La0.8Sr0.2(Mn1- xCox)0.85O3±δ Nanostructures. Chem. Mater. 2018, 30 (16), 5621–5629.

Acknowledgements:

This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 824072 (HARVESTORE) and No. 101017709 (EPISTORE), and under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 840787 (Thin-CATALYzER). The authors also acknowledge support from the Generalitat de Catalunya (2021-SGR-00750, NANOEN) and the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the AAPG2021 - CES50 call (ANR-20-CE05-0001)

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