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Title: Electrolyte Highway Breakthrough Unlocks Affordable Low-Temperature
Hydrogen Fuel

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/12/0...

Researchers at Kyushu University have developed a solid-oxide fuel cell that
operates at just 300C, less than half the usual operating temperature. The
team was able to do this by engineering a "ScO6 highway" in the electrolyte,
allowing protons to move quickly without losing performance. "The team
expects that their new findings will lead to the development of low-cost, low-
temperature SOFCs and greatly accelerate the practical application of these
devices," said the researchers in a press release. Interesting Engineering
reports: "While SOFCs are promising due to their high efficiency and long
lifespan, one major drawback is that they require operation at high
temperatures of around 700-800C (1292F-1472F)," added the researchers in a
press release. Such heat requires costly, specialized heat-resistant
materials, making the technology expensive for many applications. A lower
operating temperature is expected to reduce these manufacturing costs. The
team's success comes from re-engineering the fuel cell's electrolyte, the
ceramic layer that transports protons (hydrogen ions) to generate
electricity. Previously, scientists faced a trade-off. Adding chemical
dopants to an electrolyte increases the number of available protons but also
tends to clog the material's crystal lattice, slowing proton movement and
reducing performance. The Kyushu team worked to resolve this issue. "We
looked for oxide crystals that could host many protons and let them move
freely -- a balance that our new study finally struck," stated Yamazaki. They
found that by doping two compounds, barium stannate (BaSnO3) and barium
titanate (BaTiO3), with high concentrations of scandium (Sc), they could
create an efficient structure. Their analysis showed that the scandium atoms
form what the researchers call a "ScO6 highway." This structure creates a
wide and softly vibrating pathway through the material. "This pathway is both
wide and softly vibrating, which prevents the proton-trapping that normally
plagues heavily doped oxides," explained Yamazaki. The resulting material
achieves a proton conductivity of more than 0.01 S/cm at 300C, a performance
level comparable to conventional SOFC electrolytes that run at more than
double the temperature. The research has been published in the journal Nature
Materials.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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