Synthesis And Characterization Of Baceyo3 And Bazryo3 Composites For Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications And Microwave Sintering Of Nanoceramics

Abstract

The technological interest of high temperature ceramic newlinenanocomposites in the power generation automotive industries has attracted newlinean extensive research due to the performance of solid oxide fuel cell SOFC newlineelectrolyte at high temperatures However the ionic conductivity and newlinechemical stability of the material have been limited due to the poor newlinepolarization of the material at high temperatures Recently the proton newlineconducting perovskite electrolytes possess superior conductivity at an newlineintermediate temperature range of about 400700 ITSOFCs reducing the newlinematerial strain defects The rare earth RE elements were substituted into the newlineproton conducting perovskite matrix to further enhance the ionic conductivity newlineand to maintain the chemical stability Grain growth is an important parameter newlinewhile sintering the ceramic material at high temperatures which affects the newlinemicrostructure and density of the material The novel microwave sintering newlinetechnique has been exploited due to its rapid sintering of material which newlineeffectively controls the grain growth newlineNanocrystalline BaCYBCYREOREYbNdSm newlinehigh temperature proton conductors were synthesised by the modified Pechini newlineroute Powder XRD results show that materials sintered at 1300 exhibit newlineorthorhombic crystalline structure with the particle size in the range of newlinenanometer scale BCYSm sample possesses higher lattice strain newlinecoefficient of 28 X 10 SEM micrograph shows bimodal distribution of newlinedense particles with an observable pores in the submicrometer scale The newlinemaximum theoretical density of about 95 was achieved for the BCYSm newlinesample IV and IP results show a higher open cell voltage OCV of 103V newlineand the maximum power density of 446 mWcm for the BCYSm sample newlinecompared to other samples indicating that the material is highly stable at newlinehigher current density From the Nyquest impedance plot the grain boundary newlinebulk resistance was measured to be 52 k and thus the bulk conductivity newline newline