Solid-Solid Interfaces in Protonic Ceramic Devices: A Critical Review

The literature concerning protonic ceramic devices is critically reviewed focusing the reader's attention on the structure, composition, and phenomena taking place at solid-solid interfaces. These interfaces play a crucial role in the overall device performance, and the relevance of understanding the phenomena taking place at the interfaces for the further improvement of electrochemical protonic ceramic devices is therefore stressed. The grain boundaries and heterostructures in electrolytic membranes, the electrode-electrolyte contacts, and the interfaces within composite anode and cathode materials are all considered, with specific concern to advanced techniques of characterization and to computational modeling by ab initio approaches. An outlook about future developments and improvements highlights the necessity of a deeper insight into the advanced analysis of what happens at the solid-solid interfaces and of in situ/operando investigations that are presently sporadic in the literature on protonic ceramic devices.