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Sintering protonic zirconate cells with enhanced electrolysis stability and Faradaic efficiency

Nature Synthesis volume 4, pages 592–602 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The emerging applications of steam electrolysis and electrochemical synthesis at 300–600 °C set stringent requirements on the stability of protonic ceramic cells, which cannot be met by Ce-rich electrolytes. A promising candidate is Ce-free BaZr0.8Y0.2O3−δ, but its usage has long been hindered due to the high sintering temperatures required for protonic devices. Here we resolved the issue through a co-sintering process, in which the shrinkage stress of a readily sinterable support layer helps to densify the pure BaZr0.8Y0.2O3–δ electrolyte membrane at low temperatures. This approach eliminates Ce and harmful sintering aids in the dense zirconate electrolyte membrane, thereby enhancing the Faradaic efficiency and electrochemical stability, especially under harsh operating conditions. The protonic zirconate cells have exceptional performance and demonstrate stable high-steam pressure electrolysis up to 0.7 atm steam pressure, −2 A cm−2 current density and over 800 h of dynamic operation at 600 °C. Our processing breakthrough enables stabilized protonic cells for demanding applications in future energy infrastructure.

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Fig. 1: Redesigned half-cell to resolve the BZY membrane sintering conundrum.
Fig. 2: Electrochemical performance of BZY-15 full cells.
Fig. 3: Stability under high-steam pressure electrolysis.
Fig. 4: Electrochemical performance of BZY-5 full cells with ultrathin electrolyte.
Fig. 5: A 50 × 50 mm2 square cell with thin electrolyte.

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Data supporting the findings in the present work are available in the manuscript or Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the proton conducting solid oxide electrolysis cells (P-SOEC) lab call project and the HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium, established as part of the Energy Materials Network under the United States Department of Energy (USDOE); the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) under DOE Idaho Operations Office under contract no. DE-AC07-05ID14517. We would like to thank the Office of EERE and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) for support through H2LinkSc, a cross-office initiative to bring new ideas, materials, and tools from basic science to bear on applied problems. H.L. and M.Z. also would like to acknowledge funding support from National Science Foundation (OIA-2119688) and a subcontract from Idaho National Laboratory. J.L. acknowledges support by the Hydrogen in Energy and Information Sciences (HEISs), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), under Award DE-SC0023450.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Wei Tang, Wenjuan Bian, Hanping Ding.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy and Environment Science and Technology, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA

    Wei Tang, Wenjuan Bian, Hanping Ding, Zeyu Zhao, Samuel Koomson, Joshua Y. Gomez, Wuxiang Feng, Wei Wu & Dong Ding

  2. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA

    Wei Tang, Quanwen Sun, Meng Zhou & Hongmei Luo

  3. School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Hanping Ding

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Yong Ding

  5. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    You Wang & Dongchang Chen

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Boshen Xu & Pei Dong

  7. State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yanhao Dong

  8. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Yanhao Dong & Ju Li

  9. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Ju Li

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  1. Wei Tang
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Contributions

Y. Dong, H.L., J.L. and D.D. conceived the project. W.T., W.B. and H.D. fabricated the cells and conducted electrochemical measurements. W.T., W.B. and Y. Dong analysed the data. Y. Ding conducted the TEM analysis. Z.Z., Q.S. and S.K. contributed to the SEM analysis and cell fabrication. Q.S., Y.W., B.X., P.D., D.C., J.Y.G., W.F., W.W. and M.Z. contributed to sample characterizations and analysis. W.T., W.B. and Y. Dong wrote the paper, with substantial inputs from H.D., H.L., J.L. and D.D. All authors discussed and contributed to the writing.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yanhao Dong, Hongmei Luo, Ju Li or Dong Ding.

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Nature Synthesis thanks Guntae Kim and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Peter Seavill, in collaboration with the Nature Synthesis team.

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Tang, W., Bian, W., Ding, H. et al. Sintering protonic zirconate cells with enhanced electrolysis stability and Faradaic efficiency. Nat. Synth 4, 592–602 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00765-z

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