The Effect of Li Doping in Titanates as an Electrolyte for Fuel Cells

Abstract

This dissertation is dedicated to study of The Effect of Li Doping in Titanates as an Electrolyte for Fuel Cells. Fuel cell is one of the energy devices and use to provide clean energy in efficient way. Therefore, in this project our aim is to enhance the ionic conductivity using lithium as dopant into its titanium sites to improve ionic conductivity at lower temperature. In this research work, proposed novel electrolyte will be strontium titanate (SrTiO3) and ―lithium doped Strontium titanates‖ electrolyte material for fuel cell will be prepared via co-precipitation and sol-gel routes. The effect of Li doping in titanates will be studied to avoid the current leakage issues which ultimately enhance the performance of the fuel cell. Different properties like crystal structure, ionic behavior and conductivity will be studied. High ionic conductivity and better density is expected as an outcome of this study. To enhance the efficiency of such devices and the electronic behavior the doping of the materials need to be studied. Therefore, in this research work titanate based and doped material as SrTiO3 are developed for the fuel cell by Co-precipitation and Sol-gel methods and then fuel cell performance of the prepared materials are studied. The structural properties of Li doped prepared material is to be studied as SrTiO3. Tetragonal structure is achieved from SrTiO3 and cubic structure is achieved at LiO2 that is analyzed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Surface morphology of prepared material is studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have homogeneous and porous structure. The material shows relatively low electronic and ionic conductivity in the wide range of temperature. That material eventually increases its ionic conductivity to promote its proton conduction. SrTiO3 is perovskite oxide that shows excellent chemical and structural stability for low temperature SOFCs.