Site identification of protons in SrTiO3: Mechanism for large protonic conduction

Regulating the Electronic Structure of MAX Phases Based on Rare Earth Element Sc to Enhance Electromagnetic Wave Absorption

MAX phases are highly promising materials for electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption because of their specific combination of metal and ceramic properties, making them particularly suitable for harsh environments. However, their higher matching thickness and impedance mismatching can limit their ability to attenuate EM waves. To address this issue, researchers have focused on regulating the electronic structure of MAX phases through structural engineering. In this study, we successfully synthesized a ternary MAX phase known as Sc2GaC MAX with the rare earth element Sc incorporated into the M-site sublayer, resulting in exceptional conductivity and impressive stability at high temperatures. The Sc2GaC demonstrates a strong reflection loss (RL) of -47.7 dB (1.3 mm) and an effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 5.28 GHz. It also achieves effective absorption of EM wave energy across a wide frequency range, encompassing the X and Ku bands. This exceptional performance is observed within a thickness range of 1.3 to 2.1 mm, making it significantly superior to other Ga-MAX phases. Furthermore, Sc2GaC exhibited excellent absorption performance even at elevated temperatures. After undergoing oxidation at 800 °C, it achieves a minimum RL of -28.3 dB. Conversely, when treated at 1400 °C under an argon atmosphere, Sc2GaC demonstrates even higher performance, with a minimum RL of -46.1 dB. This study highlights the potential of structural engineering to modify the EM wave absorption performance of the MAX phase by controlling its intrinsic electronic structure.

Development of a Core-Shell Heterojunction TiO2/SrTiO3 electrolyte with improved ionic conductivity

Lately, semiconductor-membrane fuel cells (SMFCs) have attained significant interest and great attention due to the deliverance of high performance at low operational temperatures, < 550 o C. This work has synthesized the nanocomposite core-shell heterostructure (TiO 2 -SrTiO 3- ) electrolyte powder by employing the simple hydrothermal method for the SMFC. The SrTiO 3 was grown in situ on the surface of TiO 2 to form a core-shell structure. A heterojunction mechanism based on the energy band structure is proposed to explain the ion transport pathway and promote protonic conductivity. The core-shell heterostructure (TiO 2 -SrTiO 3 ) was utilized as an electrolyte to reach the peak power density of 951 mW cm -2 with an open-circuit voltage of 1.075 V at 550 o C. The formation of core-shell heterostructure among TiO 2 and SrTiO 3 causes redistribution of charges and establishes a depletion region at the interface, which confined the protons' transport on the surface layer with accelerated ion transport and lower activation energy. The current work reveals novel insights to understand enhanced proton transport and unique methodology to develop low-temperature ceramic fuel cells with high performance.

Relaxation dynamics and polydispersivity associated with defects and ferroelectric correlations in Ba-doped EuTiO3

We present the frequency- and temperature-dependent dielectric response of Eu_1-x Ba _x TiO₃ (0  ⩽  x  ⩽  0.5) in detail. Excluding grain boundary effects, four relaxation mechanisms were observed. Relaxation dynamics were observed to arise due to hopping conduction associated with defects, namely oxygen vacancies as well as Eu³⁺ and Ti³⁺ ions. Dielectric relaxation analysis led to the identification of Ti ions in two different environments with different relaxation rates in the overall EuTiO₃ perovskite structure. The emergence of another relaxation mechanism associated with ferroelectric order as a consequence of the formation of polar regions was also observed for higher Ba concentrations. The addition of Ba led to the identification of relaxation dynamics associated with hopping conduction between Eu ions, Ti ions (in the regions with and without oxygen vacancies) and with the formation of ferroelectric polar regions. Furthermore, the polydispersivity and relaxation times were extracted within the framework of the modified Debye model. Relaxation times have been observed to increase with a decrease in temperature while larger values of polydispersivity reveal a wide distribution of relaxation times due to the presence of lattice parameter and energy barrier distributions.

Hydrothermal synthesis of strontium titanate: thermodynamic considerations, morphology control and crystallisation mechanisms

The hydrothermal/solvothermal method is one of the most versatile synthetic routes for producing a large number of compounds. The thermodynamic aspects, the control of morphology and the crystallisation mechanisms are reviewed and discussed in this highlight, with special emphasis on the synthesis of SrTiO₃, as a model system.

Hydride in BaTiO2.5H0.5: A Labile Ligand in Solid State Chemistry

In synthesizing mixed anion oxides, direct syntheses have often been employed, usually involving high temperature and occasionally high pressure. Compared with these methods, here we show how the use of a titanium perovskite oxyhydride (BaTiO2.5H0.5) as a starting material enables new multistep low temperature topochemical routes to access mixed anion compounds. Similar to labile ligands in inorganic complexes, the lability of H(-) provides the necessary reactivity for syntheses, leading to reactions and products previously difficult to obtain. For example, BaTiO2.5N0.2 can be prepared with the otherwise inert N2 gas at 400-600 °C, in marked contrast with currently available oxynitride synthetic routes. F(-)/H(-) exchange can also be accomplished at 150 °C, yielding the oxyhydride-fluoride BaTi(O, H, F)3. For BaTiO2.4D0.3F0.3, we find evidence that further anionic exchange with OD(-) yields BaTiO2.4(D(-))0.26(OD(-))0.34, which implies stable coexistence of H(+) and H(-) at ambient conditions. Such an arrangement is thermodynamically unstable and would be difficult to realize otherwise. These results show that the labile nature of hydride imparts reactivity to oxide hosts, enabling it to participate in new multistep reactions and form new materials.

Direct spectroscopic observation of a shallow hydrogenlike donor state in insulating SrTiO3

We present a direct spectroscopic observation of a shallow hydrogenlike muonium state in SrTiO(3) which confirms the theoretical prediction that interstitial hydrogen may act as a shallow donor in this material. The formation of this muonium state is temperature dependent and appears below ∼ 70K. From the temperature dependence we estimate an activation energy of ∼ 50 meV in the bulk and ∼ 23 meV near the free surface. The field and directional dependence of the muonium precession frequencies further supports the shallow impurity state with a rare example of a fully anisotropic hyperfine tensor. From these measurements we determine the strength of the hyperfine interaction and propose that the muon occupies an interstitial site near the face of the oxygen octahedron in SrTiO(3). The observed shallow donor state provides new insight for tailoring the electronic and optical properties of SrTiO(3)-based oxide interface systems.

Perspectives of neutron scattering on proton conducting oxides

Understanding the fundamental properties of materials of relevance for alternative energy technologies is crucial in addressing the global challenge of cleaner sources of energy. This Perspective article aims to demonstrate the important role that neutron scattering now plays in advancing the state of the art of the basic understanding of proton conducting oxides, which show potential as electrolytes in next-generation intermediate temperature fuel cells. In particular, the breadth of neutron scattering work on perovskite structured oxides, which continue to be the most promising class of electrolytes for intermediate-temperature applications, is reviewed. Key fundamental properties that are addressed include structures, proton sites, hydrogen-bonding interactions, proton dynamics, and concentration of protons in materials. Furthermore, the perspectives for future neutron studies within this field of research are discussed.

Proton tunneling: a decay channel of the O-H stretch mode in KTaO3

The vibrational lifetimes of the O-H and O-D stretch modes in the perovskite oxide KTaO3 are measured by pump-probe infrared spectroscopy. Both stretch modes are exceptionally long lived and exhibit a large "reverse" isotope effect, due to a phonon-assisted proton-tunneling process, which involves the O-Ta-O bending motion. The excited-state tunneling rate is found to be 7 orders of magnitude larger than from the ground state in the proton conducting oxide, BaCeO3 [Phys. Rev. B 60, R3713 (1999)].

Structure and thermodynamic stability of hydrogen interstitials in BaZrO3perovskite oxide from density functional calculations

Density functional calculations have been used to study the electronic structure, preferred sites in the lattice, formation energies and vibrational frequencies for hydrogen interstitials in different charge states in the cubic phase of perovskite-structured BaZrO3. By combining ab initio results with thermodynamic modeling, defect formation at finite temperature and pressure has been investigated. We demonstrate how the site selectivity and spatial distribution of dopant atoms in the lattice can be affected by changes in the environmental conditions (atomic chemical potentials, oxygen partial pressure and temperature) used during processing of the material. In addition, we have calculated the thermodynamic parameters of the water uptake reaction for an acceptor-doped BaZrO3 crystal in equilibrium with a humid atmosphere. The interaction energies between a protonic defect and the investigated Ga, Gd, In, Nd, Sc, and Y dopants were found to be attractive, and we show that a simple model of defect association may reproduce an experimentally observed trend in the hydration enthalpy.