Towards sustainable electrochemistry: green synthesis and sintering aid modulations in the development of BaZr0.87Y0.1M0.03O3-δ (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) IT-SOFC electrolytes

Qurat Ul Ain; Muneeb Irshad; Muhammad Salim Butt; Asif Nadeem Tabish; Muhammad Bilal Hanif; Muhammad Ali Khalid; Rabia Ghaffar; Muhammad Rafique; Syeda Dur E Shawar Kazmi; Khurram Siraj; Amal A Abdel Hafez; Hisham S M Abd-Rabboh; Zuzana Zmrhalova; Elena A Filonova; Dmitry A Medvedev; Martin Motola

doi:10.3389/fchem.2023.1322475

Towards sustainable electrochemistry: green synthesis and sintering aid modulations in the development of BaZr_0.87Y_0.1M_0.03O_3-δ (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) IT-SOFC electrolytes

Front Chem. 2023 Nov 27:11:1322475. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1322475. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qurat Ul Ain¹, Muneeb Irshad¹, Muhammad Salim Butt², Asif Nadeem Tabish^{2

3}, Muhammad Bilal Hanif^{4

5}, Muhammad Ali Khalid⁶, Rabia Ghaffar⁷, Muhammad Rafique⁸, Syeda Dur E Shawar Kazmi¹, Khurram Siraj¹, Amal A Abdel Hafez⁹, Hisham S M Abd-Rabboh⁹, Zuzana Zmrhalova¹⁰, Elena A Filonova¹¹, Dmitry A Medvedev^{12

13}, Martin Motola⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
² Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, New Campus, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, New Campus, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵ State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
⁷ Division of Science and Technology, Department of Botany, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁸ Department of Physics, University of Sahiwal, Sahiwal, Pakistan.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Center of Materials and Nanotechnologies, Faculty of Chemical Technology, University of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czechia.
¹¹ Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
¹² Hydrogen Energy Laboratory, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
¹³ Laboratory of Electrochemical Devices Based on Solid Oxide Proton Electrolytes, Institute of High Temperature Electrochemistry, Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Abstract

In this study, BaZr_0.87Y_0.1M_0.03O_3-δ perovskite electrolytes with sintering aids (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) were synthesized by a sustainable approach using spinach powder as a chelating agent and then compared with chemically synthesized BaZr_0.87Y_0.1M_0.03O_3-δ (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) electrolytes for intermediate temperature SOFCs. This is the first example of such a sustainable synthesis of perovskite materials with sintering aids. Structural analysis revealed the presence of a cubic perovskite structure in BaZr_0.87Y_0.1M_0.03O_3-δ (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) samples synthesized by both green and conventional chemical methods. No significant secondary phases were observed in the samples synthesized by a sustainable approach. The observed phenomena of plane shift were because of the disparities between ionic radii of the dopants, impurities, and host materials. The surface morphology analysis revealed a denser microstructure for the electrolytes synthesized via green routes due to metallic impurities in the organic chelating agent. The absence of significant impurities was also observed by compositional analysis, while functional groups were identified through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Conductivity measurements showed that BaZr_0.87Y_0.1M_0.03O_3-δ (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) electrolytes synthesized by oxalic acid have higher conductivities compared to BaZr_0.87Y_0.1M_0.03O_3-δ (M = Mn, Co, and Fe) electrolytes synthesized by the green approach. The button cells employing BaZr_0.87Y_0.1Co_0.03O_3-δ electrolytes synthesized by the chemical and green routes achieved peak power densities 344 and 271 mW·cm^-2 respectively, suggesting that the novel green route can be applied to synthesize SOFC perovskite materials with minimal environmental impact and without significantly compromising cell performance.

Keywords: SOFC; barium zirconate; electrochemical performance; green synthesis; perovskite; proton conductor.

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through the Large Groups Project under grant number (RGP.2/335/44).