Recipes for superior ionic conductivities in thin-film ceria-based electrolytes

We employed Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Metropolis Monte Carlo (MMC) simulations to determine the oxide-ion mobility u(O) in Ce1-yGdyO2-y/2 (y = 0.02, 0.1, 0.2) for the range of temperatures 1400 <= T/K <= 2000 and field strengths 0.6 <= E/MV cm(-1) <= 15.0. Direct, unambiguous determination of u(O)(E) from MD simulations is shown to require examination of the ions' mean displacement as a function of time. MD simulations were performed for random distributions of Gd cations and equilibrium distributions obtained by MMC calculations. All u(O)(E,T,y) data obtained can be described by an (empirically augmented) analytical model with four zero-field parameters, a result that allows data to be extrapolated down to the temperatures of electrolyte operation. Specifically, the oxide-ion conductivity is predicted, for example at T = 700 K, (i) to be up to 10(1) higher for a random distribution of Gd than for an equilibrium distribution; and (ii) to be a factor of 10(0.8) higher for a 6 nm thin film than for a mu m-thick sample under a potential difference of 1 V. By virtue of non-equilibrium deposition and nm-thick samples, thin films thus provide two new recipes for attaining even higher oxide-ion conductivities in ceria-based electrolytes.

Automated summary

In this study, we used MD and MMC simulations to determine the oxide-ion mobility in Ce1-yGdyO2-y/2 materials and proposed an analytical model to interpret the results. The findings suggest that higher oxide-ion conductivity can be achieved through non-equilibrium deposition and nanoscale-thick samples.