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Photo-enhanced ionic conductivity across grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceramics

Photo-enhanced ionic conductivity across grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceramics Grain boundary conductivity limitations are ubiquitous in material science. We show that illumination with above-bandgap light can decrease the grain boundary resistance in solid ionic conductors. Specifically, we demonstrate the increase of the grain boundary conductance of a 3 mol% Gd-doped ceria thin film by a factor of approximately 3.5 at 250 °C and the reduction of its activation energy from 1.12 to 0.68 eV under illumination, while light-induced heating and electronic conductivity could be excluded as potential sources for the observed opto-ionic effect. The presented model predicts that photo-generated electrons decrease the potential barrier heights associated with space charge zones depleted in charge carriers between adjacent grains. The discovered opto-ionic effect could pave the way for the development of new electrochemical storage and conversion technologies operating at lower temperatures and/or higher efficiencies and could be further used for fast and contactless control or diagnosis of ionic conduction in polycrystalline solids. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nature Materials Springer Journals

Photo-enhanced ionic conductivity across grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceramics

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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2022. corrected publication 2022
ISSN
1476-1122
eISSN
1476-4660
DOI
10.1038/s41563-021-01181-2
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Grain boundary conductivity limitations are ubiquitous in material science. We show that illumination with above-bandgap light can decrease the grain boundary resistance in solid ionic conductors. Specifically, we demonstrate the increase of the grain boundary conductance of a 3 mol% Gd-doped ceria thin film by a factor of approximately 3.5 at 250 °C and the reduction of its activation energy from 1.12 to 0.68 eV under illumination, while light-induced heating and electronic conductivity could be excluded as potential sources for the observed opto-ionic effect. The presented model predicts that photo-generated electrons decrease the potential barrier heights associated with space charge zones depleted in charge carriers between adjacent grains. The discovered opto-ionic effect could pave the way for the development of new electrochemical storage and conversion technologies operating at lower temperatures and/or higher efficiencies and could be further used for fast and contactless control or diagnosis of ionic conduction in polycrystalline solids.

Journal

Nature Materials – Springer Journals

Published: Apr 1, 2022

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