Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces for Advanced Ionic Electronic Conducting Oxides

Mixed ionic electronic conductors (MIEC) are pivotal materials in a number of electrochemical devices that are relevant for clean energy technologies and industrial chemical processes. In this report progress, an overview of the recent strategies to tune surfaces and interfaces of MIEC fluorite and perovskite oxides for solid oxide fuel cells and microsolid oxide fuel cells electrodes is provided. Most of the works presented focus on salient strategies to improve the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the fuel oxidation reaction kinetics. Herein insights on the current understanding of heterointerfaces in epitaxial thin films and vertically aligned nanocomposites for ORR kinetics is provided. A selection of oxide materials having potential for thin-film anode application is also presented. Further, recent salient results in grain boundary engineering and ex-solution as well as strain engineering and photoactivation for the development of advanced electrodes is discussed.