Kazuhiro Yamamoto

To avoid the proneness to degradation due to coking in the operation of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) directly running on methane (CH4) fuels, a modified porous anode of the Ni1−XCoX/YSZ (yttria-stabilized zirconia) cermet prepared by an impregnation method is presented. The influence of the Co alloying content on the cermet microstructure, SOFC characteristics, and prolonged cell performance stability has been studied. Co was incorporated into Ni and formed a solid solution of Ni1−XCoX alloy connected with the YSZ as the cermet anode. The porous microstructure of the Ni1−XCoX/YSZ cermet anode formed by sintering exhibited a grain growth with an increase in the Co alloying content. The electrochemical performance of the cells consisting of the Ni1−XCoX/YSZ cermet anode, the YSZ electrolyte, and the LSM (La0.8Sr0.2MnO3) cathode showed an enhancement by the Ni1−XCoX impregnation treatment for the respective supply of H2 and CH4 to the anode. The cell using the Ni0.75Co0.25/YSZ cermet anode (the Ni0.75Co0.25 cell) showed the highest cell performance among the cells tested. In particular, the performance enhancement of this cell was found to be more significant for CH4 than that for H2; a 45% increase in the maximum power density for CH4 and a 17% increase for H2 at 750 °C compared with the performance of the cell using the Ni/YSZ cermet anode. Furthermore, the prolonged cell performance stability with a continuous CH4 supply was found for the Ni0.85Co0.15 and Ni0.75Co0.25 cells at least for 60 h at 750 °C. These enhancement effects were caused by the optimum porous microstructure of the cermet anode with the low anodic polarization resistance.

n-type GaN photoanodes used for water splitting have stability problems. One means of resolving this is loading NiO catalyst on the n-type GaN surface. Aqueous electrolytes H2SO4, HCl, KOH, and NaOH are usually used for photoelectrochemical water splitting. However, suitable electrolytes for the NiO-loading on n-type GaN photoelectrode have not yet been evaluated. Therefore, we investigated the effects of changing electrolytes used for NiO-loading in this study. The photocurrent of NiO-loading on n-type GaN increased when KOH and NaOH electrolytes were used. In addition, the surfaces showed no corrosion after reaction when these electrolytes were used. However, the photocurrent was not stable using KOH electrolyte. Interestingly, stable photocurrent was observed with when the NaOH electrolyte was used. In the case of H2SO4, the photocurrent of GaN did not change with and without NiO. The surface morphologies became rough because of GaN corrosion, and NiO dissolved in the H2SO4 electrolyte. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this feature article, we highlight our works on compositional and structural dependence of up converting rare earth (RE) fluorides obtained through ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) assisted hydrothermal synthesis. Various nanostructures were obtained by tuning of experimental conditions, such as precursor's concentration, degree of doping, reaction time and solvent used during synthesis. We correlated in detail the structural, morphological and optical properties of YF3 and NaYF4 compounds co-doped with Yb3+ and Er3+ (introduced in total mol% of 8 and 20). For this purpose, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray and Furrier transform infrared spectroscopy, as well as, the photoluminescence spectra and decay times were recorded and analyzed. The particle size and phase content were found to be dependent on the nucleation rate, which, in turn, was governed by the precursor concentration, degree of doping and solvent type. The transformation from cubic to hexagonal NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ phase was found to be sensitive to the reaction time and precursors concentration, while the crystallization of orthorhombic YF3:Yb3+/Er3+ phase is achieved through lowering of dopants concentration or by changing of solvent during hydrothermal treatment. The up-conversion photoluminescence demonstrated morphology and crystal phase dependence and is found to be superior in microcrystalline samples, independent on their phase composition. (C) 2016 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology japan. All rights reserved.