Remarkably high proton conductivity in cubic perovskite-related Ba 3 WO 6

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2022-08, Vol.10 (31), p.16697-16703
• Main Authors: Yang, Jian, Lv, Yun, Xu, Xiangyu, Song, Xingping, Wei, Huina, Tian, Man, Xu, Jungu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/D2TA04282G

The Ba 3 WO 6 material was reported to have seven kinds of polymorphs. However, the crystal structures of most of them were not established. In this work, the polymorph (denoted as α-Ba 3 WO 6 hereafter) with a cubic 4 × 4 × 4 superstructure of a simple perovskite structure was prepared, with its crystal structure being solved by combining powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and neutron powder diffraction (NPD) techniques. This structure showed intrinsically severe barium- and oxygen-deficiencies. Variable temperature XRD revealed a phase unstable region within 600–1000 °C. The electrical property study on α-Ba 3 WO 6 revealed extremely high proton conductivities at temperatures below 600 °C, e.g. 1.75 × 10 −2 S cm −1 at 500 °C, which is comparable to that of the BaCeO 3 -based materials. A fuel cell based on α-Ba 3 WO 6 electrolyte yielded a power density of ∼520 mW at a working temperature of 500 °C. The α-Ba 3 WO 6 material thus shows great potential for being used as an electrolyte for proton conducting fuel cells (PCFCs). This work thus may further stimulate the development of superior proton conductors in oxides with a superstructure of the simple perovskite structure.