Effect of sintering conditions on structural and morphological properties of Y- and Co-doped BaZrO3 proton conductors

BaZrO3-based materials doped with a trivalent cation have excellent chemical stability and relatively high proton conductivity which makes them potential conducting oxide for various electrochemical device applications such as hydrogen processing, high-temperature electrolysis, solid electrolyte in fuel cells. However, BaZrO3 showed poor sinterability, requiring sintering temperatures (1700–2100 °C) longtime (20–100 h) to achieve the desired microstructure grain growth. This problem can be solved by slightly doping aid element. Therefore, this study, two different zirconate conductors: BaZr0·9Y0·1O3-α (BZY) BaZr0·955Y0·03Co0·015O3-α (BZYC) were sintered an air atmosphere oxygen 20 h temperature range of 1500–1640 °C. The sinterability was evaluated analyzing XRD diffraction patterns, lattice constant, strain, crystallite size, relative density, open porosity, closed surface morphology, boundary distribution, using XRD, SEM, EDX, Archimedes density measurement methods. It is concluded that atmosphere, Co not only improves but also produces highly dense fine particles clear boundaries are promising applications.