A novel method to rapidly functionalize perovskite oxide

Abstract

High-performance perovskite oxides are instrumental for catalytic processes and energy conversion. Exsolution of metallic nanoparticles from perovskite oxide host to form metal/oxide heterogeneous catalyst provides unprecedented opportunities for manipulating the catalytic activity of perovskites. Herein, we design and demonstrate a new approach to rapidly trigger exsolution and tune the electrochemical performance of perovskite. We show that by pulsed thermal shock for several times (~50 ms in pulse width) and voltage shock for ~40 s, exsolution-based products can be prepared in a timescale of seconds. With the increase of pulsed number, the particle density increases first due to the increase in concentration of oxygen vacancy that can be served as nucleation sites, and then reaches to a threshold governed primarily by the content of exsolvable metal atoms in host lattice. Benefitted from the additionally generated active sites and conducting paths for active species, the perovskite activity is significantly improved, and thus eventually giving rise to a prominent enhancement of electrochemical performance.