Exceptionally High Proton Conductivity in Eu2O3 by Proton-coupled Electron Transfer Mechanism

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2024-01-19

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

Series

iScience, Volume 27, issue 1

Abstract

Proton conductors are typically developed by doping to introduce structural defects such as oxygen vacancies to facilitate ionic transport through structural bulk conduction mechanism. In this study, we present a novel electrochemical proton injection method via an in situ fuel cell process, demonstrating proton conduction in europium oxide (Eu 2O 3) through a surficial conduction mechanism for the first time. By tuning Eu 2O 3 into a protonated form, H-Eu 2O 3, we achieved an exceptionally high proton conductivity of 0.16 S cm −1. Distribution of relaxation time (DRT) analysis was employed to investigate the proton transport behavior and reveal the significant contribution of surface proton transport to the overall conductivity of Eu 2O 3. Remarkably, H-Eu 2O 3 exhibited a low activation energy for ionic transport, comparable to the best ceramic electrolytes available. The proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) mechanism describes this novel surficial proton conduction mechanism. These findings provide new possibilities for developing advanced proton conductors with improved performance.

Description

Keywords

Other note

Citation

Wan, S, Yousaf, M, Wang, H, Lund, P & Zhu, B 2024, ' Exceptionally High Proton Conductivity in Eu 2 O 3 by Proton-coupled Electron Transfer Mechanism ', iScience, vol. 27, no. 1, 108612 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108612