Electrochemical performance of mixed ionic-electronic conducting oxides as anodes for solid oxide fuel cell

Mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) oxides, SrFeCo0.5Ox, SrCo0.8Fe0.2O3-delta and La0.6Sr0.4Fe0.8Co0.2O3-delta have been synthesized and prepared on yttria-stabilized zirconia as anodes for solid oxide fuel cells. Power output measurements show that the anodes composed of such kinds of oxides exhibit modest electrochemical activities to both H-2 and CH4 fuels, giving maximum power densities of around 0.1 W/cm(2) at 950 degrees C. Polarization and AC impedance measurements found that large activation overpotentials and ohmic resistance drops were the main causes for the relative inferior performance to the Ni-YSZ anode. While interlayered with an Ni-YSZ anode, a significant improvement in the electrochemical performance was observed. in particular, for the SrFeCo0.5Ox oxide interlayered Ni-YSZ anode, the maximum power output reaches 0.25 W/cm2 on CH,, exceeding those of both SrFeCo0.5Ox and the Ni-YSZ, as anodes alone. A synergetic effect of SrFeCo0.5Ox and the Ni-YSZ has been observed. Future work is needed to examine the long-term stability of MIEC oxide electrodes under a very reducing environment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Sol-gel derived oxides and mixed oxides catalysts with narrow mesoporous distribution

A novel sol-gel process for preparing oxides and mixed oxides sols from precipitation and peptization process is reported in this article. Inorganic salts are used as raw materials in this study. It is found that the amount of acid has great influence on the stability and particle diameter distribution of the precursor sols. Ultrasonic treatment is used to prepare alumina sol at room temperature. The result of Al-27 NMR shows that there exist Al-13(7+) species in the sol. By controlling the sol particles with narrow particle diameter distribution, alumina, titania and silica-alumina (SA) materials with narrow mesoporous distribution are formed by regular packing of sol particles during gelation without using any templates. The results also show that the structure and particle diameter distribution of precursor sol determine the final materials' texture.

Partial oxidation of methane over the perovskite oxides

Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-delta and Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Ti0.2O3-delta oxides were synthesized by a combined EDTA-citrate complexing method. The catalytic behavior of these two oxides with the perovskite structure was studied during the reaction of methane oxidation. The pre-treatment with methane has different effect on the catalytic activities of both the oxides. The methane pre-treatment has not resulted in the change of the catalytic activity of BSCFO owing to its excellent reversibility of the perovskite structure resulting from the excellent synergistic interaction between Co and Fe in the oxide. However, the substitution with Ti on Fe-site in the lattice makes the methane pre-treatment have an obvious influence on the activity of the formed BSCTO oxide.

High-throughput screening of HZSM-5 supported metal-oxides catalysts for the coupling of methane with CO to benzene and naphthalene

High-throughput screening of HZSM-5 supported metal-oxides catalysts were carried out for the coupling reaction of methane with CO to aromatics in a multi-stream reactor system. Zn/HZSM-5 and Mo/HZSM-5 were observed to be rather effective for the catalytic formation of aromatics from the coupling reaction of methane with CO. Temperature-programmed reaction has further proven the efficiency of the coupling of methane and CO over Zn/HZSM-5 catalyst. The results were also validated in a conventional fixed-bed reactor coupled with GC. The results propose that the coupling methane with CO toward benzene and naphthalene can be catalyzed by Zn/HZSM-5 at 500 ° C. Both methane and CO are needed for the formation of reactive coke on the catalyst, and the reactive coke may be the initial product in the producing of hydrocarbons. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of structure in the electrochemical performance of nanostructured metal oxides for lithium ion battery anodes

The Li-ion battery has for a number of years been a key factor that has enabled an ever increasing number of modern consumer devices, while in recent years has also been sought to power a range of emerging electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Due to their importance and popularity, a number of characteristics of Li-ion batteries have been subjected to intense work aimed at radical improvement. Although electrode material selection intrinsically defines characteristics like maximum capacity or voltage, engineering of the electrode structure may yield significant improvements to the lifetime performance of the battery, which would not be available if the material was used in its bulk form. The body of work presented in this thesis describes the relationship between the structure of electrochemically active materials and the course of the electrochemical processes occurring within the electrode. Chapter one describes the motivation behind the research presented herein. Chapter two serves to highlight a number of key advancements which have been made and detailed in the literature over recent years, pertaining to the use of nanostructured materials in Li-ion technology. Chapter three details methods and techniques applied in developing the body of work presented in this thesis. Chapter four details structural, molecular and electrochemical characteristics of tin oxide nanoparticle based electrodes, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the size distribution and the electrode performance. Chapter five presents findings of structural, electrochemical and optical study of indium oxide nanoparticles grown on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy. In chapter 6, tin oxide inverted opal electrodes are investigated for the conduct of the electrochemical performance of the electrodes under varying rate of change of potential. Chapter 7 presents the overall conclusions drawn from the results presented in this thesis, coupled with an indication of potential future work which may be explored further.