A-site deficient La0.52Sr0.28Ti0.94Ni0.06O3 by low-pulsed electric current treatment: achieved exsolution of B-site Ni nanoparticles and significant improvement of electrocatalytic properties

Abstract

Abstract Perovskite materials with exsolved nanoparticles have a wide range of applications in energy conversion systems owing to their unique basal plane active sites and excellent catalytic properties. The introduction of A-site deficiency can help the formation of highly mobile oxygen vacancies and remarkably enhance the reducibility of Ni nanoparticles, thus significantly increasing electronic conductivity and catalytic activity simultaneously. Herein, we adopt pulsed electric current (PEC) treatment, a novel approach instead of the long-time high-temperature reduction technique, and for the first time review that the exsolution of minuscule Ni nanoparticles (8–20 nm) could be facilitated on Ni-doped La0.52Sr0.28Ti0.94Ni0.06O3 (LSTN) anodes with A-site deficiency. Encouragingly, finding that low PEC can successfully lead to nanoparticle exsolution and show a significantly improved oxygen evolution reaction performance of LSTN-PEC (LSTN after PEC treatment) possessing A-site deficiency, the onset potential of LSTN-PEC (500 V) (LSTN after PEC treatment with 500 V–4 Hz–90 s) was advanced by 0.173 V, the R ct value was reduced by 82.38 Ω·cm2, and the overpotential was also reduced by 73 mV.