Nd-doped Ba(Ce,Zr)O3 − δ proton conductors for application in conversion of CO2 into liquid fuels

The paper presents crystal structure, transport properties, chemical stability in CO2 atmosphere and thin film membrane preparation for materials from the Ba(Ce1 − xZrx)0.9Nd0.1O2.95 (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) group of perovskite-type structure oxides. Transformation of crystal structure from orthorhombic Pnma to orthorhombic Imma and cubic P m 3 ¯ m with increasing xZr was observed along with linear decrease of pseudo-cubic unit cell volume and free lattice volume. Electrical conductivity of bulk and grain boundary was determined in dry air, as well as in air humidified with H2O or D2O. The highest proton conductivity was observed for material with xZr = 0.25. Further increase of Zr content led to decrease of conductivity as high as 2 orders of magnitude. This effect was coupled with bell-shape dependence of activation energy and pre-exponential term. Such behavior was explained as superimposed effects of high proton mobility for zirconium-rich materials due to cubic symmetry and cerium-rich materials due to softness of oxygen–oxygen separation distance, along with high proton concentration for cerium-rich perovskites. The deteriorating effect of grain boundaries on total electrical conductivity was far more pronounced for Zr-rich materials than in the case of Ce-rich ones. Declining grain boundary conductivity was attributed to both increase of number of grain boundaries and decrease of inherent grain boundary conductivity for Zr-rich samples. The highest chemical stability in CO2 atmosphere was achieved for high-Zr content materials, on the contrary, for BaCe0.9Nd0.1O2.95 in CO2 atmosphere, the decomposition onset temperature was below 500 °C. 2 μm thin film membrane of Ba(Ce0.75Zr0.25)0.9Nd0.1O2.95 was successfully prepared on c-plane sapphire and fused silica substrates. Filmʹs crystal structure matched that of the bulk material. The electrical conductivity of thermally treated film obtained on c-plane sapphire in wet air was 3.7 × 10− 4 S cm− 1 at 600 °C.