| Abstract Scope |
Solid oxide electrolysis cells cleanly and efficiently produce hydrogen for fuel, driving interest in their development. It is known that compositional changes, phase stability, Cr resistance, and microstructure morphology in the oxygen electrode are important. This project chose a La2NiO4+δ backbone, as its conductivity mechanism, interstitial oxygen (Oï), maintains ionic conductivity under high PO2 and shows much lower reaction in Cr-poisoning modeling experiments. However, as LNO has lower surface oxygen transport, work focused on surface engineering of the oxygen electrode with an infiltrated LaCoO3-δ (LCO)-based perovskite layer. The surface engineering technique chosen uses a biomolecular infiltration approach. The catechol chemistry was selected as a surfactant due to similarities to an adhesive on the feet of mussels, allowing controllable adhesion coating properties. Work was done on characterization of the electrochemical properties via EIS of infiltrated LNO backbones, and on surface properties such as roughness, homogeneity, and particle size via AFM. |