Synthesis and Characterizations of Hexagonal Perovskite-Related Oxide for Solid Electrolyte Application

Perovskite materials show immense potential as an electrolyte in intermediate temperature SOFCs. Recently, a few hexagonal perovskite-based materials demonstrate high oxide ion conductivity at intermediate temperatures in wide range of oxygen partial pressure. In the present work, a prominent hexagonal perovskite-related oxide material, Ba7Nb4MoO20 (BNMO), was synthesized via solid-state reaction method and characterized by X-ray Diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for phase formation, structural and spectroscopic analysis. The surface morphology and elemental concentration of the synthesized samples was examined using SEM and EDAX spectroscopy. Impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement was performed to study the electrical behavior of the sample. At ~650 °C, the electrical conductivity of the composition in the air has been found to be ~1.54 × 10–2 S-cm−1. This demonstrates its possible application as a solid electrolyte for electrochemical devices such as solid oxide fuel cells.