Toward Structural, Chemical, and Electrochemical Analyses of Solid-State Batteries Using Correlative Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Imaging.

The global transition from fossil fuels to green energy underpins the need for efficient and reliable energy storage systems. Advanced analysis and characterization of battery materials is not only important to understand fundamental battery properties but also crucial for their continued development. A deep understanding of these systems is often difficult to obtain through only pre- and/or post-mortem analyses, with the full complexity of a battery being hidden in its operational state.

Active and durable RMnRuO pyrochlores with low Ru content for acidic oxygen evolution.

The production of green hydrogen in water electrolyzers is limited by the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). State-of-the-art electrocatalysts are based on Ir. Ru electrocatalysts are a suitable alternative provided their performance is improved.

Highly active and stable OER electrocatalysts derived from SrMIrO for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers.

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis is a promising technology to produce green hydrogen from renewables, as it can efficiently achieve high current densities. Lowering iridium amount in oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysts is critical for achieving cost-effective production of green hydrogen. In this work, we develop catalysts from Ir double perovskites.

Improving plasma sprayed Raney-type nickel-molybdenum electrodes towards high-performance hydrogen evolution in alkaline medium.

Rationally designed free-standing and binder-free Raney-type nickel-molybdenum (Ni-Mo) electrodes produced via atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) are developed by correlating APS process parameters with the microstructure of electrodes and their electrochemical performance in alkaline media. The results revealed that the electrode morphology and elemental composition are highly affected by the plasma parameters during the electrode fabrication. It is found that increasing plasma gas flow rate and input plasma power resulted in higher in-flight particle velocities and shorter dwell time, which in result delivered electrodes with much finer structure exhibiting homogeneous distribution of phases, larger quantity of micro pores and suitable content of Ni and Mo.

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique.

Electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM) is a powerful atomic force microscopy (AFM) mode for the investigation of ion dynamics and activities in energy storage materials. Here we compare the changes in commercial LiFePO cathodes due to ageing and its influence on the measured ESM signal. Additionally, the ESM signal dynamics are analysed to generate characteristic time constants of the diffusion process, induced by a dc-voltage pulse, which changes the ionic concentration in the material volume under the AFM tip.

Tolerance and Recovery of Ultralow-Loaded Platinum Anode Electrodes upon Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Sulfide Exposure.

The effects of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulfide (HS) in concentrations close to their respective limits in the Hydrogen Quality Standard ISO 14687-2:2012 on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) with ultralow-loaded platinum anode catalyst layers (CLs) were investigated. The anodic loadings were 50, 25, and 15 µg/cm, which represent the current state-of-the-art, target, and stretch target, respectively, for future automotive PEMFCs. Additionally, the effect of shut-down and start-up (SD/SU) processes on recovery from sulfur poisoning was investigated.