Towards a low-cost solid oxide electrolyte based on local mineral

Abstract

The demand for critical minerals is showing significant growth as a response to various applications in energy transition devices such as those involving solid oxide electrolytes. Thus, in the present work a dense and conductor material was prepared following appropriate sintering of a low-cost local natural mineral (NM). Comprehensive morphological, textural, and microstructural characterizations were carried out in order to study the densification of NM samples shaped as thin layers obtained by casting method using polyethylene oxide (PEO) as a plasticizer and distilled water. It was found that sintering at 1000 °C was enough to achieve densification without any change of material structure, as indicated by significant decrease of specific surface area and porosity. Furthermore, the effect of temperature on electrical conductivity was measured by impedance spectroscopy (IS) under dry air by increasing temperatures and total conductivity value at about 8.48 × 10−2 S cm−1 was reached at 950 °C. Such promising intrinsic electrical conductivity, in addition to appropriate material densification, paves the way for possible application of such an available and low-cost natural minerals as solid oxide electrolyte.