Facile fabrication and improved carbon dioxide tolerance of a novel bilayer-structured ceramic oxygen permeating membrane

Designing CO2-resistant oxygen-selective mixed ionic-electronic conducting membranes: guidelines, recent advances, and forward directions

CO₂ resistance is an enabling property for the wide-scale implementation of oxygen-selective mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) membranes in clean energy technologies, i.e., oxyfuel combustion, clean coal energy delivery, and catalytic membrane reactors for greener chemical synthesis. The significant rise in the number of studies over the past decade and the major progress in CO₂-resistant MIEC materials warrant systematic guidelines on this topic. To this end, this review features the pertaining aspects in addition to the recent status and advances of the two most promising membrane materials, perovskite and fluorite-based dual-phase materials. We explain how to quantify and design CO₂ resistant membranes using the Lewis acid-base reaction concept and thermodynamics perspective and highlight the relevant characterization techniques. For perovskite materials, a trade-off generally exists between CO₂ resistance and O₂ permeability. Fluorite materials, despite their inherent CO₂ resistance, typically have low O₂ permeability but this can be improved via different approaches including thin film technology and the recently developed minimum internal electronic short-circuit second phase and external electronic short-circuit decoration. We then elaborate the two main future directions that are centralized around the development of new oxide compositions capable of featuring simultaneously high CO₂ resistance and O₂ permeability and the exploitation of phase reactions to create a new conductive phase along the grain boundaries of dual-phase materials. The final part of the review discusses various complimentary characterization techniques and the relevant studies that can provide insights into the degradation mechanism of oxide-based materials upon exposure to CO₂.

Controllable synthesis of CeO2 nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes and their application in NO oxidation

This study describes the synthesis of ceria catalysts with octahedron and nanosphere shapes via a facile and surfactant-free hydrothermal method. The morphology of the products could be controlled by adjusting the proportions of the solvent.

Novel Approach for Developing Dual-Phase Ceramic Membranes for Oxygen Separation through Beneficial Phase Reaction

A novel method based on beneficial phase reaction for developing composite membranes with high oxygen permeation flux and favorable stability was proposed in this work. Various Ce0.8Sm0.2O2-δ (SDC) + SrCO3+Co3O4 powders with different SDC contents were successfully fabricated into membranes through high temperature phase reaction. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements suggest that the solid-state reaction between the SDC, SrCO3 and Co3O4 oxides occurred at the temperature for membrane sintering, leading to the formation of a highly conductive tetragonal perovskite phase SmxSr1-xCoO3-δ. The morphology and elemental distribution of the dual-phase membranes were characterized using back scattered scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (BSEM-EDX). The oxygen bulk diffusivity and surface exchange properties of the materials were investigated via the electrical conductivity relaxation technique, which supported the formation of conductive phases. The SDC+20 wt % SrCO3+10.89 wt % Co3O4 membrane exhibited the highest permeation flux among the others, reaching 0.93 mL cm(-2) min(-1) [STP = standard temperature and pressure] under an air/helium gradient at 900 °C for a membrane with a thickness of 0.5 mm. In addition, the oxygen permeation flux remained stable during the long-time test. The results demonstrate the beneficial phase reaction as a practical method for the development of high-performance dual-phase ceramic membranes.

Compositional engineering of perovskite oxides for highly efficient oxygen reduction reactions

Mixed conducting perovskite oxides are promising catalysts for high-temperature oxygen reduction reaction. Pristine SrCoO(3-δ) is a widely used parent oxide for the development of highly active mixed conductors. Doping a small amount of redox-inactive cation into the B site (Co site) of SrCoO(3-δ) has been applied as an effective way to improve physicochemical properties and electrochemical performance. Most findings however are obtained only from experimental observations, and no universal guidelines have been proposed. In this article, combined experimental and theoretical studies are conducted to obtain fundamental understanding of the effect of B-site doping concentration with redox-inactive cation (Sc) on the properties and performance of the perovskite oxides. The phase structure, electronic conductivity, defect chemistry, oxygen reduction kinetics, oxygen ion transport, and electrochemical reactivity are experimentally characterized. In-depth analysis of doping level effect is also undertaken by first-principles calculations. Among the compositions, SrCo0.95Sc0.05O(3-δ) shows the best oxygen kinetics and corresponds to the minimum fraction of Sc for stabilization of the oxygen-vacancy-disordered structure. The results strongly support that B-site doping of SrCoO(3-δ) with a small amount of redox-inactive cation is an effective strategy toward the development of highly active mixed conducting perovskites for efficient solid oxide fuel cells and oxygen transport membranes.