Electronic structure origin of conductivity and oxygen reduction activity changes in low-level Cr-substituted (La, Sr)MnO3

Tsekouras, George and Boudoire, Florent and Pal, Banabir and Vondracek, Martin and Prince, Kevin C and Sarma, DD and Braun, Artur (2015) Electronic structure origin of conductivity and oxygen reduction activity changes in low-level Cr-substituted (La, Sr)MnO3. In: JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 143 (11).

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Abstract

The electronic structure of the (La0.8Sr0.2)(0.98)Mn1-xCrxO3 model series (x = 0, 0.05, or 0.1) was measured using soft X-ray synchrotron radiation at room and elevated temperature. O K-edge near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectra showed that low-level chromium substitution of (La, Sr)MnO3 resulted in lowered hybridisation between O 2p orbitals and M 3d and M 4sp valance orbitals. Mn L-3-edge resonant photoemission spectroscopy measurements indicated lowered Mn 3d-O 2p hybridisation with chromium substitution. Deconvolution of O K-edge NEXAFS spectra took into account the effects of exchange and crystal field splitting and included a novel approach whereby the pre-peak region was described using the nominally filled t(2g) up arrow state. 10% chromium substitution resulted in a 0.17 eV lowering in the energy of the t(2g) up arrow state, which appears to provide an explanation for the 0.15 eV rise in activation energy for the oxygen reduction reaction, while decreased overlap between hybrid O 2p-Mn 3d states was in qualitative agreement with lowered electronic conductivity. An orbital-level understanding of the thermodynamically predicted solid oxide fuel cell cathode poisoning mechanism involving low-level chromium substitution on the B-site of (La, Sr)MnO3 is presented. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
Publisher:	AMER INST PHYSICS
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the AMER INST PHYSICS, 1305 WALT WHITMAN RD, STE 300, MELVILLE, NY 11747-4501 USA
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	30 Oct 2015 07:16
Last Modified:	30 Oct 2015 07:16
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/52597

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