Abstract
The implementation of nano-engineered composite oxides opens up the way towards the development of a novel class of functional materials with enhanced electrochemical properties. Here we report on the realization of vertically aligned nanocomposites of lanthanum strontium manganite and doped ceria with straight applicability as functional layers in high-temperature energy conversion devices. By a detailed analysis using complementary state-of-the-art techniques, which include atom-probe tomography combined with oxygen isotopic exchange, we assess the local structural and electrochemical functionalities and we allow direct observation of local fast oxygen diffusion pathways. The resulting ordered mesostructure, which is characterized by a coherent, dense array of vertical interfaces, shows high electrochemically activity and suppressed dopant segregation. The latter is ascribed to spontaneous cationic intermixing enabling lattice stabilization, according to density functional theory calculations. This work highlights the relevance of local disorder and long-range arrangements for functional oxides nano-engineering and introduces an advanced method for the local analysis of mass transport phenomena.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 2660 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 11 May 2021 |
Bibliographical note
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third partymaterial in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Funding
J.S. acknowledges the support of ICN2 (funded by the CERCA programme/Generalitat de Catalunya and by the Severo Ochoa programme SEV-2017-0706) for the XRD measurements. M.A. acknowledges the support from the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship Program of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Isaac Newton Trust, 17.25(a). M.A. and J.D. acknowledge the support from the EPSRC Centre of Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems (CAM-IES) under EP/P007767/1. J.D. also acknowledge support from EPSRC grants EP/N004272/1, EP/T012218/1, the Royal Academy of Engineering-CIET1819_24, ERC POC grant 779444, Portapower. X.W. and H.W. acknowledge the funding support from the U.S. National Science Foundation for the TEM effort at Purdue University (DMR-1565822 and DMR-2016453). This project has received funding from the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 824072 (HARVESTORE), No 681146 (ULTRA-SOFC) and No 101017709 (EPISTORE) and was supported by an STSM Grant from the COST Action MP1308: Towards Oxide-Based Electronics (TO-BE), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The authors thank A. Aguadero for the fruitful discussions and A. Kuzyk for support on graphics.
Funders | Funder number |
---|---|
Royal Academy of Engineering, The | |
EPSRC Centre of Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems | |
The COST Association | |
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung | |
Horizon Europe | 681146, 824072, 101017709 |
Horizon Europe | |
Isaac Newton Trust | 17.25 |
Isaac Newton Trust | |
CERCA programme/Generalitat de Catalunya | SEV-2017-0706 |
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | EP/T012218/1, EP/N004272/1 |
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | |
Purdue University | DMR-2016453, DMR-1565822 |
Purdue University | |
EPSRC Centre of Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems | EP/P007767/1 |
European Research Council | 779444 |
European Research Council | |
National Science Foundation | 2016453 |
National Science Foundation |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Physics and Astronomy