Muhammad Naeem Khan
Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), Pakistan
Title: Enhanced densification and chemical stability of ZnO-added BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3 - δ electrolyte material for proton conducting solid oxide fuel cells
Biography
Biography: Muhammad Naeem Khan
Abstract
BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3 - δ (BZCYYb) proton conducting electrolyte material was processed via solid state reaction method and ZnO was added in various wt. %. 1 wt. % of ZnO was found as the optimum amount for obtaining the maximum densification with optimum shrinkage of 24.23%. An increase in the grain size was observed with increase in the sintering temperature from 1300 – 1400 ºC with a maximum relative density of 99.1% at the sintering temperature of 1350 ºC. A maximum value of ionic conductivity of 13.25 x 10-3 S cm-1 at 600 ºC was achieved in humidified 5 vol% H2/Ar atmosphere. The average value of the thermal expansion co-efficient (α) was measured to be 8.53 x 10-6 K-1 in the temperature range of 50 – 1100 ºC, which is close to the α value for Pr-based cathode materials. The chemical stability of ZnO-added BZCYYb sample in pure CO2 up to 1200 ºC was found about 3 times higher than the blank BZCYYb (without ZnO), however still some small peaks corresponding to BaCO3 and CeO2 were observed in XRD pattern after chemical stability test. Hence, ZnO-added BZCYYb is a promising electrolyte material for fuel cell applications.