Highly Conductive Cerium- and Neodymium-Doped Barium Zirconate Perovskites for Protonic Ceramic Fuel Cells

Serdar Yilmaz, Bekir Kavici, Prakash Ramakrishnan, Cigdem Celen and Bahman Amini Horri ()
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Serdar Yilmaz: Department of Physics, Mersin University, Mersin 33343, Turkey
Bekir Kavici: Department of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Mersin University, Mersin 33343, Turkey
Prakash Ramakrishnan: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
Cigdem Celen: Department of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Mersin University, Mersin 33343, Turkey
Bahman Amini Horri: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: The rare-earth-doped zirconia-based solid electrolytes have gained significant interest in protonic ceramic fuel cell (PCFC) applications due to their high ionic conductivity. However, these solid electrolytes are susceptible to low conductivity and chemical stability at low operating temperatures, which are of interest in commercializing ceramic fuel cells. Thus, tailoring the structural properties of these electrolytes towards gaining high ionic conductivity at low/intermediate temperatures is crucial. In this study, Ce (cerium) and Nd (neodymium) co-doped barium zirconate perovskites, BaZr (0.80- x-y ) Ce x Nd y Y 0.10 Yb 0.10 O 3- δ (BZCNYYO) of various doping fractions ( x , y : 0, 0.5, 0.10, 0.15), were synthesized (by the Pechini method) to systematically analyze their structural and conductivity properties. The X-ray diffraction patterns showed a significant lattice strain, and the stress inferences for each co-doped BZCNYYO sample were compared with Nd-cation-free reference samples, BaZrO 3 and BaZr (0.80- x-y-z ) Ce x Y y Yb z O 3- δ ( x : 0, 0.70; y : 0.20, 0.10; z : 0, 0.10). The comparative impedance investigation at low-to-intermediate temperatures (300–700 °C) showed that BaZr 0.50 Ce 0.15 Nd 0.15 Y 0.10 Yb 0.10 O 3- δ offers the highest lattice strain and stress characteristics with an ionic conductivity ( σ ) of 0.381 mScm −1 at 500 °C and activation energy ( E a ) of 0.47 eV. In addition, this σ value was comparable to the best reference sample BaZr 0.10 Ce 0.70 Y 0.10 Yb 0.10 O 3- δ (0.404 mScm −1 ) at 500 °C, and it outperformed all the reference samples when the set temperature condition was ≥600 °C. The result of this study suggests that Ce- and Nd-doped BZCNYYO solid electrolytes will be a specific choice of interest for developing intermediate-temperature PCFC applications with high ionic conductivity.

Keywords: co-doped electrolyte; barium zirconate; neodymium-doped perovskite; protonic-conducting ceramic fuel cells; solid-state electrolytes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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