Electrochemical Reduction of Oxygen and Nitric Oxide on Mn-Based Perovskites with Different A-Site Cations

Four LnMnO(3+delta) (Ln. La, Pr, Sm, and Gd) perovskites were synthesized and characterized by powder XRD. It was shown that the perovskite lattice became more and more distorted when lowering the size of the A-site cation. The manganite-based perovskites were evaluated for the ability to electrochemically reduce oxygen and nitric oxide in the temperature range of 200 to 400 degrees C. At the lowest temperature, the electrodes were better at reducing nitric oxide than oxygen. At higher temperatures, the activity for the reduction of oxygen and nitric oxide became similar. The activation energies for the reduction of oxygen and nitric oxide were markedly different for LaMnO3+delta and PrMnO3+delta whereas it was similar for SmMnO3+delta and GdMnO3+delta.