Effect of sintering on the structural and morphological properties of barium cerate based electrolyte for IT-SOFCs application

The present work aims to study the variation of structural properties of solid electrolyte sintered through microwave sintering and conventional sintering techniques. X-ray diffraction analysis was performed upon the as burned powder calcined at 600°C and 900°C for phase identification, HRTEM results reveals the particles size are in nano scale order for the powder synthesized through co precipitation method. XRD and SEM studies were carried out for the pellets sintered through these two techniques. It was observed that the sample sintered in microwave oven form the phase pure crystallinity, good densification, uniform microstructure and also gives higher ionic conductivity than conventionally sintered one. Hence, the solid ceramic sintered in short duration through microwave can give high dense nanocomposite solid electrolyte for electrochemical conversion in solid oxide fuel cell.