Approaches Towards Boosting the Ionic Conductivity of Electrolyte Materials for Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Abstract

BaZr1−X GaX O3−δ (where x=0.1, 0.3 and 0.5) electrolyte materials for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) are synthesized in this research project. Cost effective co-precipitation, solid state reaction, and sol-gel methods are used to synthesize the electrolyte materials for SOFC. All the materials are sintered at low temperature (800℃) and low sintering effect also is discussed. Crystal structure, element composition and functional group are studied by XRD, FTIR and RAMAN spectroscopy. XRD confirms the peroveskite based cubic structure with Pm3m space group. The crystallite sizes are calculated in the range of 29.67 - 15.37 nm. FTIR and Raman analysis confirm the functional groups, stretching and bending modes. The maximum conductivity of BZG was recorded to be 0.065 S/cm at 750 ℃ (when x = 0.1 via co- precipitation).