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

Abstract

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 (La0.52Ca0.28Ni0.06Ti0.94O3) 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.