Reduction of nickel oxide particles by hydrogen studied in an environmental TEM

In situ reduction of nickel oxide (NiO) particles is performed under 1.3mbar of hydrogen gas (H2) in an environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM). Images, diffraction patterns and electron energy-loss spectra (EELS) are acquired to monitor the structural and chemical evolution of the system during reduction, whilst increasing the temperature. Ni nucleation on NiO is either observed to be epitaxial or to involve the formation of randomly oriented grains. The growth of Ni crystallites and the movement of interfaces result in the formation of pores within the NiO grains to accommodate the volume shrinkage associated with the reduction. Densification is then observed when the sample is nearly fully reduced. The reaction kinetics is obtained using EELS by monitoring changes in the shapes of the Ni L2,3 white lines. The activation energy for NiO reduction is calculated from the EELS data using both a physical model-fitting technique and a model-independent method. The results of the model-fitting procedure suggest that the reaction is described by Avrami models (whereby the growth and impingement of Ni domains control the reaction), in agreement with the ETEM observation

Nickel oxide reduction studied by environmental TEM and in situ XRD

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, July 29 - August 2, 201

Operando analysis of a solid oxide fuel cell by environmental transmission electron microscopy

Correlating the microstructure of an energy conversion device to its performance is often a complex exercise, notably in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) research. SOFCs combine multiple materials and interfaces that evolve in time due to high operating temperatures and reactive atmospheres. We demonstrate here that operando environmental transmission electron microscopy can simplify the identification of structure-property links in such systems. By contacting a cathode-electrolyte-anode cell to a heating and biasing microelectromechanical system in a single-chamber configuration, a direct correlation is found between the environmental conditions (O2 and H2 partial pressures, temperature), the cell voltage, and the microstructural evolution of the fuel cell, down to the atomic scale. The results shed new insights into the impact of the anode oxidation state and its morphology on the cell electrical properties.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Oxidation of nickel particles in an environmental TEM

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.</jats:p

Reduction of nickel oxide particles by hydrogen studied in an environmental TEM

In situ reduction of nickel oxide (NiO) particles is performed under 1.3 mbar of hydrogen gas (H-2) in an environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM). Images, diffraction patterns and electron energy-loss spectra (EELS) are acquired to monitor the structural and chemical evolution of the system during reduction, whilst increasing the temperature. Ni nucleation on NiO is either observed to be epitaxial or to involve the formation of randomly oriented grains. The growth of Ni crystallites and the movement of interfaces result in the formation of pores within the NiO grains to accommodate the volume shrinkage associated with the reduction. Densification is then observed when the sample is nearly fully reduced. The reaction kinetics is obtained using EELS by monitoring changes in the shapes of the Ni L-2,L-3 white lines. The activation energy for NiO reduction is calculated from the EELS data using both a physical model-fitting technique and a model-independent method. The results of the model-fitting procedure suggest that the reaction is described by Avrami models (whereby the growth and impingement of Ni domains control the reaction), in agreement with the ETEM observations

High Performance Flexible All Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells with Reduced Voc Deficit in Wide Bandgap Subcell

Among various types of perovskite based tandem solar cells TSCs , all perovskite TSCs are of particular attractiveness for building and vehicle integrated photovoltaics, or space energy areas as they can be fabricated on flexible and lightweight substrates with a very high power to weight ratio. However, the efficiency of flexible all perovskite tandems is lagging far behind their rigid counterparts primarily due to the challenges in developing efficient wide bandgap WBG perovskite solar cells on the flexible substrates as well as their low open circuit voltage VOC . Here, it is reported that the use of self assembled monolayers as hole selective contact effectively suppresses the interfacial recombination and allows the subsequent uniform growth of a 1.77 eV WBG perovskite with superior optoelectronic quality. In addition, a postdeposition treatment with 2 thiopheneethylammonium chloride is employed to further suppress the bulk and interfacial recombination, boosting the VOC of the WBG top cell to 1.29 V. Based on this, the first proof of concept four terminal all perovskite flexible TSC with a power conversion efficiency of 22.6 is presented. When integrating into two terminal flexible tandems, 23.8 flexible all perovskite TSCs with a superior VOC of 2.1 V is achieved, which is on par with the VOC reported on the 28 all perovskite tandems grown on the rigid substrat