Chemically stable proton conducting doped BaCeO3 by citrate-EDTA complexing sol-gel process for solid oxide fuel cell

Proton conducting oxides Ba1-xSrxCe0.65Zr0.25Y0.1O3-δ are prepared using the citrate-EDTA complexing sol-gel method. The effect of strontium and yttrium doping on the material properties are systematically investigated using TG/DTA, XRD, SEM, EDAX, FTIR, RAMAN and LCR measurments. The results indicated a single phase orthorhombic system. Strontium incorporation helped in increasing the grain size while reducing the lattice parameters and unit cell volume. The ionic conductivities of the sintered oxides increased with increase in the concentration of Sr2+ along with the co doping strategy of trivalent Y3+ in B site. In the present work at 500 °C, exhibited high conductivity value of 2.25 × 10−3 S/cm with activation energy of 0.38 eV in wet atmosphere. These results indicate that this composition can be used as a potential electrolyte if synthesis conditions and temperature are well maintained.