Improved Proton Conductivity in Spark-Plasma Sintered Dense Ceramic BaZr0.5In0.5O3-delta

Journal article, 2010

Spark-plasma sintering method was used to prepare dense proton conducting perovskite oxide BaZr0.5In0.5O3-delta. Analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data showed that the sample adopt the cubic crystal structure having the space group Pm3m. Thermogravimetric analysis of prehydrated samples showed significant mass losses beyond 300 degrees C due to loss of protons as water vapor. Scanning electron microscope images show that the grain size of the spark-plasma sintered dense sample was smaller than that of solid-state sintered porous sample. The highest total proton conductivity (2 X 10(-3) S cm(-1) at 450 degrees C) was found for dense spark-plasma sintered sample under wet H-2 than the samples prepared by other routes.