Evolution of Copper Electrodes Fabricated by Electroless Plating on BaZr0.7Ce0.2Y0.1O3-δ Proton-Conducting Ceramic Membrane: From Deposition to Testing in Methane

Steven Harvey,Neil Patki,Brian Gorman,Sandrine Ricote,Chun-Sheng Jiang,Anthony Manerbino,Mowafak Al-Jassim,David Diercks

doi:10.3390/ceramics1020021

Steven Harvey, Neil Patki + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ceramics1020021

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Abstract

We investigated copper electrodes deposited onto a BaZr0.7Ce0.2Y0.1O3-δ (BZCY72) proton-conducting membrane via a novel electroless plating method, which resulted in significantly improved performance when compared to a traditional painted copper electrode. The increased performance was examined with a multiscale multitechnique characterization method including time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning spreading-resistance microscopy (SSRM), and atom-probe tomography (APT). Through this method, we observed that a palladium catalyst layer alloys with the copper electrode. We also explored the nature of a non-coking-induced carbon-rich phase that may be involved with the improved performance of the electrode.

Highlights

High-temperature proton conductors (HTPCs) have increasingly attracted attention because of their high proton transference number and low activation energy for proton conduction [1,2].Various applications can be targeted for HTPC-based devices
To investigate the root-cause mechanisms for the observed near-doubling of the faradaic efficiency in the electroless plating (ELP) coated copper electrode samples compared to standard painted electrodes, samples from all steps of the ELP process outlined in Figure 1 were investigated with a variety of characterization techniques
Are the high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image and resulting EDS map for a similar area of the TEM EDS map; results confirm that the high-conductivity phase is nickel-rich at the grain boundaries

Summary

Introduction

High-temperature proton conductors (HTPCs) have increasingly attracted attention because of their high proton transference number and low activation energy for proton conduction [1,2].Various applications can be targeted for HTPC-based devices. High-temperature proton conductors (HTPCs) have increasingly attracted attention because of their high proton transference number and low activation energy for proton conduction [1,2]. Examples include protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) for electricity generation [3,4,5], protonic ceramic electrolysis cells (PCECs) for energy storage [6,7], membranes for hydrogen separation [8], membrane reactors for fuels upgrading (e.g., methane dehydroaromatization–MDA) [9,10], and hydrogen compression [11]. The MDA reaction consists of a single-step, non-oxidative route to produce hydrogen and benzene from methane as given in Equation (1): (1). The reaction is typically carried out around 700 ◦ C using a catalyst consisting of molybdenum carbide nanoparticles supported on shape-selective zeolites such as ZSM-5 and MCM-22 [12,13,14].

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