Prof. NI Meng, Associate Dean of Faculty of Construction and Environment, Head of Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering and Chair Professor of Energy Science and Technology of PolyU, in collaboration with researchers from Shenzhen University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Nanjing Tech University and Curtin University, published a paper titled “Interfacial oxide wedging for mechanical-robust electrode in high-temperature ceramic cells” in Nature Communications recently.
Delamination and cracking of air electrodes are two mechanical factors contributing to the degradation of high-temperature electrochemical ceramic cells. While the incorporation of negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials can address delamination by reducing the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) of the air electrode, it may exacerbate cracking due to significant thermal stress between particles of NTE and positive thermal expansion perovskites (PTE). The research team has introduced interfacial oxides to “wedge” the NTE-PTE interface, thereby resisting cracking within the bulk of the air electrode through reactive calcination at near-melting temperatures.
The study demonstrated that that oxide wedging, which utilises the thermal expansion offset provided by a NTE component to greatly enhance interface multiphase binding, can serve as an effective strategy for developing mechanically robust electrodes for high-temperature electrochemical cells. Enhanced bulk modulus (by 102%), hardness (by 138%), and reduced TEC (by 35%) are simultaneously achieved, significantly improving the durability of the air electrode over 40 rigorous thermal cycles between 600 °C and 300 °C, with no degradation observed even after two years of exposure to ambient air.
Prof. NI Meng is currently Management Committee Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) and Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD).
Read the full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63719-1
| Research Units | Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy | Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development |
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