Battery Power - Winter 2014 - (Page 30)
ReseaRch & Development
ORNL-Grown Oxygen 'Sponge' Presents Path to
Better Catalysts, Energy Materials
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National
Laboratory have developed a new oxygen "sponge" that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms at low temperatures. Materials
with these novel characteristics would be useful in devices such
as rechargeable batteries, sensors, gas converters and fuel cells.
Materials containing atoms that can switch back and forth
between multiple oxidation states are technologically important
but very rare in nature, says ORNL's Ho Nyung Lee, who led
the international research team that published its findings in
Nature Materials.
"Typically, most elements have a stable oxidation state, and
they want to stay there," Lee said. "So far there aren't many
known materials in which atoms are easily convertible between
different valence states. We've found a chemical substance that
can reversibly change between phases at rather low temperatures
without deteriorating, which is a very intriguing phenomenon."
Many energy storage and sensor devices rely on this valenceswitching trick, known as a reduction-oxidation or redox reaction. For instance, catalytic gas converters use platinum-based
metals to transform harmful emissions such as carbon monoxide
into nontoxic gases by adding oxygen. Less expensive oxidebased alternatives to platinum usually require very high temperatures, at least 600°C to 700°C, to trigger the redox reactions,
making such materials impractical in conventional applications.
"We show that our multivalent oxygen sponges can undergo
such a redox process at as low as 200°C, which is comparable
to the working temperature of noble metal catalysts," Lee said.
"Granted, our material is not coming to your car tomorrow, but
this discovery shows that multivalent oxides can play a pivotal
role in future energy technologies."
The team's material consists of strontium cobaltite, which is
known to occur in a preferred crystalline form called brownmillerite. Through an epitaxial stabilization process, the ORNL-led
team discovered a new recipe to synthesize the material in a
more desirable phase known as perovskite. The researchers have
filed an invention disclosure on their findings.
"These two phases have very distinct physical properties," Lee said. "One is a metal, the other is an insulator. One
responds to magnetic fields, the other does not, and we can
make it switch back and forth within a second at significantly
reduced temperatures."
The international team's design and testing of this novel
advanced material from scratch required multidisciplinary
expertise and sophisticated tools from such places as Argonne
National Laboratory and ORNL, including Argonne's Advanced
Photon Source and ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials
Science, says Lee.
"As we showed in this study, only through the study of a
well-defined system can we build a framework for the design of
next generation energy materials," said coauthor John Freeland
of Argonne. "This insight was made possible by merging the ca-
30
Battery Power * Winter 2014
This schematic depicts a new ORNL-developed material
that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms. This schematic depicts a new ORNL-developed material that can easily
absorb or shed oxygen atoms.
pabilities at Oak Ridge and Argonne national labs for advanced
synthesis and characterization of novel materials."
The study, "Reversible redox reactions in an epitaxially stabilized SrCoOx oxygen sponge," involved ORNL's Hyoungjeen
Jeen, Woo Seok Choi, Matthew Chisholm, Michael Biegalski
and Dongwon Shin; Argonne's Chad Folkman, I-Cheng Tung,
Dillon Fong and John Freeland; and Hokkaido University's
Hiromichi Ohta. The work was supported by DOE's Office of
Science.
The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory is one of five national synchrotron radiation light sources supported by the US Department of Energy's Office of Science to
carry out applied and basic research to understand, predict, and
ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic
and molecular levels, provide the foundations for new energy
technologies, and support DOE missions in energy, environment
and national security.
The Center for Nanophase Materials Science is one of five
DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs), national
user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale,
supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs
comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process,
characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the
largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Battery Power - Winter 2014
Editor’s Choice
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ORNL-Grown Oxygen ‘Sponge’ Presents Path to
Better Catalysts, Energy Materials
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