Strongly enhanced oxygen ion transport through samarium-doped CeO2 nanopillars in nanocomposite films.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26446866.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms9588 and PMC identifier 4633963.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Enhancement of oxygen ion conductivity in oxides is important for low-temperature (<500 °C) operation of solid oxide fuel cells, sensors and other ionotronic devices. While huge ion conductivity has been demonstrated in planar heterostructure films, there has been considerable debate over the origin of the conductivity enhancement, in part because of the difficulties of probing buried ion transport channels. Here we create a practical geometry for device miniaturization, consisting of highly crystalline micrometre-thick vertical nanocolumns of Sm-doped CeO2 embedded in supporting matrices of SrTiO3. The ionic conductivity is higher by one order of magnitude than plain Sm-doped CeO2 films. By using scanning probe microscopy, we show that the fast ion-conducting channels are not exclusively restricted to the interface but also are localized at the Sm-doped CeO2 nanopillars. This work offers a pathway to realize spatially localized fast ion transport in oxides of micrometre thickness.