Engineering Commons^™

Synthesis And Characterization Of Electrode Materials Of Solid Oxide Cells For Energy Conversion And Storage, Haixia Li

Theses and Dissertations

Solid oxide cells (SOCs) can directly convert chemical energy to electricity in the fuel cell mode and store electricity to chemicals in the electrolysis mode. However, there are still critical barriers, such as energy efficiency and durability, for developing and commercializing SOCs. This dissertation aims to design electrode materials and optimize the cell fabrication process to address the critical barriers for SOCs in energy conversion and energy storage applications. Therefore, one primary focus of the dissertation is to develop robust fuel electrode material for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with improved sulfur tolerance. In addition, the design of novel fuel …

Material Development And Optimization Of Solid Oxide Cells For Energy Conversion And Storage, Wanhua Wang

Theses and Dissertations

There has been an increasing interest in clean and renewable energy generation for highlighted energy and environmental concerns. Solid oxide cell (SOC) has been considered as one of the most promising technologies since it can convert chemical energy to electricity in the fuel cell mode and store electricity to chemicals in the electrolysis mode. The present work is devoted to materials development in both oxygen ion conducting SOC (O-SOC) and proton conducting SOC (P-SOC). The objective of this study is to design and optimize the electrolyte and electrode materials for SOC in energy conversion and energy storage applications. One major …

Proton Transfer In Molten Lithium Carbonate: Mechanism And Kinetics By Density Functional Theory Calculations, Xueling Lei, Kevin Huang, Changyong Qin

Faculty Publications

Using static and dynamic density functional theory (DFT) methods with a cluster model of [(Li2CO3)8H]+, the mechanism and kinetics of proton transfer in lithium molten carbonate (MC) were investigated. The migration of proton prefers an inter-carbonate pathway with an energy barrier of 8.0 kcal/mol at the B3LYP/6-31 G(d,p) level, which is in good agreement with the value of 7.6 kcal/mol and 7.5 kcal/mol from experiment and FPMD simulation, respectively. At transition state (TS), a linkage of O–H–O involving O 2p and H 1 s orbitals is formed between two carbonate ions. The calculated trajectory of H indicates that proton has …

Performance Of Solid Oxide Iron-Air Battery Operated At 550°C, Xuan Zhao, Yunhui Gong, Xue Li, Nansheng Xu, Kevin Huang

Faculty Publications

“Metal-air” batteries have garnered much attention in recent years due to their high intrinsic specific energy and use of inexhaustible and storage-free oxygen source -air- for the “metal-oxygen” reaction. In this study, we report theperformance of a new type of all solid-state “iron-air” battery operated at 550°C. The results show that CeO₂ nanoparticles incorporated into the Fe-Fe₃O₄ redox-couple can improve the specific energy (Wh/kg) and round trip efficiency by 15% and 29%, respectively, over the baseline Fe-Fe₃O₄ battery. Use of supported Fe-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles as the redox couple can increase the …

Synthesis And Characterization Of New Ionic And Mixed Ionic/Electronic Conductors, Kevin Gregory Romito

Theses and Dissertations

In a constantly growing and developing world, there is a great need to develop new forms of clean energy generation. Many solutions have been proposed to ameliorate these global concerns, which include fuel cell technology and new processes for reducing polluting chemicals in the atmosphere. These technologies are still in their infancy and require further development before becoming viable options.

In the case of fuel cells, particularly solid oxide fuel cells, and CO2 separation membranes, there is a need to develop ion conducting materials that are highly efficient, less costly to synthesize, and can perform strongly under many real-world conditions. …