Electrical properties of lanthanum silicate apatite electrolytes prepared by an innovative chemical route

Electrochemical Society

2014-09-29

Lanthanum Silicate

Innovative Chemical Route

This work reports the synthesis of apatite-type lanthanum silicate powders with nominal composition La10Si6O27 by an innovative chemical route which combines co-precipitation and sol-gel approaches. The herein proposed synthetic procedure is advantageous in reducing energy consumption and processing time, key elements to decrease the total manufacturing cost. The asprepared powder was calcined between 500 and 900 °C. Structure of the calcined powders, characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement, indicated the formation of apatite crystalline lanthanum silicate with minor amount of L2O3 at 900 °C. The apatite powder was further analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of sintering temperature, ranging from 1400 to 1450 °C, on the electrical properties was investigated by impedance spectroscopy. Electrical measurements were recorded in the 400 – 800 °C temperature range. The lanthanum silicate electrolyte sintered at 1450 °C exhibited total electrical conductivity (σ700 ºC = 2.12 x 10-3 S.cm-1) comparable with samples from literature prepared by sol-gel and freeze drying methods and sintered at 1500 °C. The results in the present study demonstrate that the co-precipitation method combined with a solgel approach is a promising alternative route to synthesize lanthanum silicate powders