16 research outputs found
Slow, Steady-State Transport with "Loading" and Bulk Reactions: the Mixed Ionic Conductor LaCuO
We consider slow, steady transport for the normal state of the superconductor
LaCuO in a one-dimensional geometry, with surface fluxes
sufficiently general to permit oxygen to be driven into the sample (``loaded'')
either by electrochemical means or by high oxygen partial pressure. We include
the bulk reaction OO, where neutral atoms () go into ions
() and holes (). For slow, steady transport, the transport equations
simplify because the bulk reaction rate density and the bulk loading rates
then are uniform in space and time. All three fluxes must be
specified at each surface, which for a uniform current density corresponds
to five independent fluxes. These fluxes generate two types of static modes at
each surface and a bulk response with a voltage profile that varies
quadratically in space, characterized by and the total oxygen flux
(neutral plus ion) at each surface. One type of surface mode is associated with
electrical screening; the other type is associated both with diffusion and
drift, and with chemical reaction (the {\it diffusion-reaction mode}). The
diffusion-reaction mode is accompanied by changes in the chemical potentials
, and by reactions and fluxes, but it neither carries current (J=0) nor
loads the system chemically (). Generation of the diffusion-reaction
mode may explain the phenomenon of ``turbulence in the voltage'' often observed
near the electrodes of other mixed ionic electronic conductors (MIECs).Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur