Significance enhancement in the conductivity of core shell nanocomposite electrolytes

Today, there is great demand of electrolytes with high ionic conductivities at low operating temperatures for solid-oxide fuel cells. Therefore, a co-doped technique was used to synthesize a highly ionically conductive two phase nanocomposite electrolyte Sr/Sm-ceria-carbonate by a co-precipitation method. A significant increase in conductivity was measured in this co-doped Sr/Sm-ceria-carbonate electrolyte at 550 °C as compared to the more commonly studied samarium doped ceria. The fuel cell power density was 900 mW cm^-2 at low temperature (400-580 °C). The composite electrolyte was found to have homogenous morphology with a core-shell structure using SEM and TEM. The two phase core-shell structure was confirmed using XRD analysis. The crystallite size was found to be 30-60 nm and is in good agreement with the SEM analysis. The thermal analysis was determined with DSC. The enhancement in conductivity is due to two effects; co-doping of Sr in samarium doped ceria and it's composite with carbonate which is responsible for the core-shell structure. This co-doped approach with the second phase gives promise in addressing the challenge to lower the operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC).