CeO 2 surface oxygen vacancy concentration governs in situ free radical scavenging efficacy in polymer electrolytes

  • Panagiotis Trogadas
  • , Javier Parrondo
  • , Vijay Ramani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

217 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nonstoichiometric CeO 2 and Ce 0.25Zr 0.75O 2 nanoparticles with varying surface concentrations of Ce 3+ were synthesized. Their surface Ce 3+ concentration was measured by XPS, and their surface oxygen vacancy concentrations and grain size were estimated using Raman spectroscopy. The surface oxygen vacancy concentration was found to correlate well with grain size and surface Ce 3+ concentration. When incorporated into a Nafion polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), the added nonstoichiometric ceria nanoparticles effectively scavenged PEM-degradation-inducing free radical reactive oxygen species (ROS) formed during fuel cell operation. A 3-fold increase in the surface oxygen vacancy concentration resulted in an order of magnitude enhancement in the efficacy of free radical ROS scavenging by the nanoparticles. Overall, the macroscopic PEM degradation mitigation rate was lowered by up to 2 orders of magnitude using nonstoichiometric ceria nanoparticles with high surface oxygen vacancy concentrations

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5098-5102
Number of pages5
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume4
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 24 2012

Keywords

  • free radical scavenging
  • nonstoichiometric cerium oxide
  • PEM degradation
  • reactive oxygen species

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'CeO 2 surface oxygen vacancy concentration governs in situ free radical scavenging efficacy in polymer electrolytes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this