Synthesis and Performance Tuning of Sm0.2Ce0.8O2−δ Electrolyte for Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Application

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 48; no. 6; pp. 4117 - 4124
• Main Authors: Gilbile, T. L., Pawar, R. S., Kapatkar, V. N., Kamble, R. C., Pawar, S. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystal structure; Crystallites; Debye-Scherrer method; Electrical properties; Electrical resistivity; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; Electrolytes; Electronics and Microelectronics; Instrumentation; Lattice vacancies; Low temperature; Materials Science; Migration; Optical and Electronic Materials; Organic chemistry; Oxygen ions; Sintering (powder metallurgy); Solid oxide fuel cells; Solid State Physics; X-ray diffraction; co-precipitation; ionic conductivities; fluorites; SOFC
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-019-07184-9

The charge transportation in the solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte, Sm 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2− δ (SDC); has been elucidated by using DC and AC measurements as a function of grain size at temperature 500°C. Initially, chemically homogeneous pellets of SDC were prepared using its powder synthesized by oxalate co-precipitation method and then mean crystallite-size of the SDC samples was varied by adjusting the sintering temperature. The mean crystallite-size was calculated from x-ray diffraction data by using the Debye–Scherrer equation. Further, the samples were examined for their crystal structure, crystallite-size and chemical homogeneity. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to understand electrical properties of the samples and its correlation with crystallite-size was revealed. SDC samples having larger crystallites exhibited higher electrical conductivity by providing a number of mobile oxygen ions for conduction. However, a lesser number of oxygen ion vacancies across crystallite-boundaries become a hurdle for oxygen migration through samples having small crystallite-size.