Hydrogen diffusion in high temperature proton conducting ceramics

S. Sorieul (1) , S. Miro (1, 2) , M. Taillades-Jacquin (3) , Julian Dailly (4) , Fabrice Mauvy (4) , Marie-Hélène Berger (5) , P. Berger (1)

1 LPS - Laboratoire Pierre Süe
2 SRMP - Service de recherches de métallurgie physique
3 ICGM ICMMM - Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux de Montpellier
4 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
5 CDM - Centre des Matériaux

BaCeO3 or SrCeO3-based perovskites doped with a rare earth are high temperature protonic conductors (HTPC) envisioned as electrolytes for fuel cells working at intermediate temperature (400–600 C). In these ceramics, the proton conductance is hampered by microstructural defects that act as barriers for hydrogen diffusion. Respective contributions of bulk and grain boundaries to overall conductivity is usually evidenced via impedance measurements but further information on hydrogen transport relevant for improvement of microstructure design can be obtained with nuclear microanalysis, based on the use of MeV light ions microbeam. We report here a contribution of ion beam microanalysis to the study of hydrogen transport in BaCe0.9Y0.1O3. ERDA hydrogen profiling performed on partially hydrated samples at 200 and 500 C reveals concentration gradients from which diffusion coefficients have been derived with the help of a simple Fickian diffusion model.

Keywords: Hydrogen; ERDA; Perovskite; Nuclear microprobe

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Material chemistry; Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]

S. Sorieul, S. Miro, M. Taillades-Jacquin, Julian Dailly, Fabrice Mauvy, et al.. Hydrogen diffusion in high temperature proton conducting ceramics. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2008, 266 (8), pp.1430-1433. ⟨10.1016/j.nimb.2007.12.005⟩. ⟨cea-00283001⟩