Paving the way to nanoionics [electronic resource] : Atomic origin of barriers for ionic transport through interfaces
- Published
- Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences, 2015.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy - Physical Description
- Article numbers 17,229 : digital, PDF file
- Additional Creators
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States. Department of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
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- Summary
- The blocking of ion transport at interfaces strongly limits the performance of electrochemical nanodevices for energy applications. The barrier is believed to arise from space-charge regions generated by mobile ions by analogy to semiconductor junctions. Here we show that something different is at play by studying ion transport in a bicrystal of yttria (9% mol) stabilized zirconia (YSZ), an emblematic oxide ion conductor. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) provides structure and composition at atomic resolution, with the sensitivity to directly reveal the oxygen ion profile. We find that Y segregates to the grain boundary at Zr sites, together with a depletion of oxygen that is confined to a small length scale of around 0.5 nm. Contrary to the main thesis of the space-charge model, there exists no evidence of a long-range O vacancy depletion layer. Combining ion transport measurements across a single grain boundary by nanoscale electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM), broadband dielectric spectroscopy measurements, and density functional calculations, we show that grain-boundary-induced electronic states act as acceptors, resulting in a negatively charged core. In conclusion, besides the possible effect of the modified chemical bonding, this negative charge gives rise to an additional barrier for ion transport at the grain boundary.
- Report Numbers
- E 1.99:1259714
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- Other Subject(s)
- Note
- Published through SciTech Connect.
12/17/2015.
"srep17229"
Scientific Reports 5 ISSN 2045-2322 AM
M. A. Frechero; M. Rocci; G. Sanchez-Santolino; Amit Kumar; J. Salafranca; Rainer Schmidt; M. R. Diaz-Guillen; O. J. Dura; A. Rivera-Calzada; R. Mishra; Stephen Jesse; S. T. Pantelides; Sergei V. Kalinin; M. Varela; S. J. Pennycook; J. Santamaria; C. Leon. - Funding Information
- MAT2011-27470-C01
S2009/MAT-1756
239739
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