Comparative Study of Electrophoretic Deposition of Doped BaCeO3-Based Films on La2NiO4+δ and La1.7Ba0.3NiO4+δ Cathode Substrates

Elena Kalinina; Elena Pikalova; Alexandr Kolchugin; Nadezhda Pikalova; Andrey Farlenkov

doi:10.3390/ma12162545

Comparative Study of Electrophoretic Deposition of Doped BaCeO₃-Based Films on La₂NiO_4+δ and La_1.7Ba_0.3NiO_4+δ Cathode Substrates

Materials (Basel). 2019 Aug 9;12(16):2545. doi: 10.3390/ma12162545.

Authors

Elena Kalinina^{1

2}, Elena Pikalova^{3

4}, Alexandr Kolchugin^{5

6}, Nadezhda Pikalova^{5

7}, Andrey Farlenkov^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Complex Electrophysic Investigations, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electrophysics, Yekaterinburg 620016, Russia. jelen456@yandex.ru.
² Department of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry, Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia. jelen456@yandex.ru.
³ Laboratory of Solid State Oxide Fuel Cells, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of High Temperature Electrochemistry, Yekaterinburg 620137, Russia. e.pikalova@list.ru.
⁴ Department of Environmental Economics, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia. e.pikalova@list.ru.
⁵ Laboratory of Solid State Oxide Fuel Cells, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of High Temperature Electrochemistry, Yekaterinburg 620137, Russia.
⁶ Laboratory of Materials and Devices for Clean Power Industry, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia.
⁷ Department of Technical Physics, Institute of Physics and Technology, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a comparative study of methods to prevent the loss of barium during the formation of thin-film proton-conducting electrolyte BaCe_0.89Gd_0.1Cu_0.01O_3-δ (BCGCuO) on La₂NiO_4+δ-based (LNO) cathode substrates by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Three different methods of the BCGCuO film coating were considered: the formation of the BCGCuO electrolyte film without (1) and with a protective BaCeO₃ (BCO) film (2) on the LNO electrode substrate and the formation of the BCGCuO electrolyte film on a modified La_1.7Ba_0.3NiO_4+δ (LBNO) cathode substrate (3). After the cyclic EPD in six stages, the resulting BCGCuO film (6 μm) (1) on the LNO substrate was completely dense, but the scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis revealed the absence of barium in the film caused by its intensive diffusion into the substrate and evaporation during the sintering. The BCO layer prevented the barium loss in the BCGCuO film (2); however, the protective film possessed a porous island structure, which resulted in the deterioration of the film's conductivity. The use of the modified LBNO cathode also effectively prevented the loss of barium in the BCGCuO film (3). A BCGCuO film whose conductivity behavior most closely resembled that of the compacts was obtained by using this method which has strong potential for practical applications in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology.

Keywords: Ba loss; SOFC; cathode substrate; electrical conductivity; electrophoretic deposition; protective layer; proton-conducting electrolyte; stable suspension; thin-film technology.