High Temperature Elastic Modulus of Proton Conducting Ceramics Y-Doped Ba(Zr,Ce)O3
Authors: Hinata Keisuke , Sata Noriko , Costa Rémi , Iguchi Fumitada 
Published: December 2020

Proton conducting ceramics (PCC) cells are promising energy conversion devices that enable high efficiency energy conversion at lower temperature range, solving the challenge of conventional solid oxide cells (SOCs) due to the high operating temperature. Electrochemical performance and chemical stability of PCC electrolyte has been investigated in recent studies, suggesting that rare-earth doped Ba(Zr,Ce)O3 perovskite-type ceramics are optimal materials exhibiting high proton conductivity and chemical stability during operations. On the contrary, mechanical stability of these PCC electrolyte materials has not been evaluated despite the fact that the mechanical properties are critically important for achieving long-term stable operation as fuel cells or electrolyser cells. For the development of conventional SOCs, mechanical stability during high temperature operation was one of the most significant challenges to deal with, which was attained as a result of detailed studies on in-situ elastic properties of composing materials such as oxygen ion conducting electrolytes and residual stresses. Similarly, for PCC cells, mechanical properties of cells and composing materials have been of significant interest in order to achieve mechanically stable long-term operation, even though PCC cells operate at lower temperature than SOCs. Furthermore, the metal-supported (MS) structure which provides superior mechanical robustness compared to anode-supported (AS) structure is expected to be applied effectively to PCC cells, which are called proton conducting ceramics – metal-supported cells (PCC-MSCs), leading to greater necessity of the mechanical evaluation of the cells and composing materials.

Electrolyte is the most crucial component in an electrochemical cell and must be mechanically stable because ion transport and gas tightness made by electrolyte determines electrical performance. However, there has been important concern that larger thermal stresses might be introduced in PCC cells compared to SOCs, resulting from the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) mismatch between the electrode and electrolyte and from the chemical expansion by the hydration that occurs in a certain temperature range. The PCC electrolyte is highly in need of investigation on in-situ mechanical properties, especially on elastic properties. In this study, elastic properties of electrochemically promising PCC, Y-doped Ba(Zr,Ce)O3 perovskite-type ceramics, were investigated under high temperature conditions. Elastic moduli such as Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio were measured by the method that we previously developed for elastic investigation in high temperature conditions using ultrasonic waves. This method enables highly accurate and repetitive examination of elastic properties at high temperatures in materials with poor sinterability including PCC by measuring ultrasonic sound velocities in pellets typically fabricated for electrochemical tests.

Pellets of BaZr1-xYxO3-δ (BZY) with different concentrations of doped yttrium, BaZr0.9Y0.1O3-δ (BZY10), BaZr0.85Y0.15O3-δ (BZY15), and BaZr0.8Y0.2O3-δ (BZY20), were fabricated. Additionally, pellets of BaZryCe1-yY0.1O3-δ (BZCY) with different ratio of Ce to Zr, BaZr0.7Ce0.2Y0.1O3-δ (BZCY721) and BaZr0.8Ce0.1Y0.1O3-δ (BZCY811) were fabricated. Powders of PCCs above were consolidated to be thick rounded shape and sintered in air. Each prepared sample was set in an electric furnace in laboratory air atmosphere and sound velocities were measured with the sample slowly heated up to 700 °C and subsequently cooled down to room temperature to calculate elastic moduli at each measuring point. In the first series of heating and cooling measurements for as-sintered samples, hysteresis on elastic moduli in intermediate temperature range was observed. We repeatedly conducted a series of heating and cooling measurements several times, and then the hysteresis was not observed any further. Fig.1 shows final state Young’s modulus of BZCY721, BZCY811, and BZY10 (BZCY901) without hysteresis.

Elastic moduli at room temperature have not changed through multiple heating and cooling measurements, and crystal structures and lattice parameters were also confirmed to remain constant by x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The hysteresis found in a specific temperature range suggests that elastic moduli were influenced presumably by a change in defect structure of PCC caused by hydration or defect association of oxygen vacancies and dopants. At room temperature, Young’s modulus decreased with the increment of Ce concentration by 16 % from BZY10 to BZCY721. When materials have the same crystalline structure, Young’s modulus generally decreases as mean atomic volume of the base crystal increases. Because BaCeO3 has larger mean atomic volume than BaZrO3, this observation is qualitatively reasonable. However, in high temperatures, the difference became significant only for BZCY721, Young’s modulus decreased by 30 % from that at room temperature in BZCY721. These results suggest that Ce substitution causes different high temperature dependences.

Figure 1