Physicochemical properties of non-stoichiometric oxides

One of the most important challenges with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) is to find cathode materials with high enough catalytic activity for the dissociation of the molecular oxygen. Oxide mixed conductors with the perovskite structure (ABO₃) and high Co content in the B site have been extensively studied to be used as cathode in SOFC. This is the second part of a review of high temperature properties of two mixed conductors systems. The first part was focused on the n = 2 Sr₃FeMO_6+δ (M = Fe, Co, Ni) Rudlesdden Popper phases, while in this paper we discuss the thermodynamic and transport properties of the perovskite solid solution Sr_1−x La _x Fe_0.2Co_0.8O_3−δ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.4) in the temperature range 773 ≤ T ≤ 1173 K. In particular, the interest has been focused on the x = 0 sample, which exhibits large ionic conductivity values (σ_i ~1 S cm⁻¹), but suffers a structural transformation from cubic to orthorhombic symmetry because the ordering of the oxygen vacancies when the oxygen partial pressure decreases. Measurements of the oxygen chemical potential ( m_\textO2 \mu_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }} ) as function of oxygen content and temperature, coupled with high temperature X-ray diffraction data, permitted us to broaden the knowledge of the T–δ–p(O₂) phase diagram for the x = 0 sample. In addition, we have investigated the effects of the La incorporation on the stability range of the cubic phases of the Sr_1−x La _x Fe_0.2Co_0.8O_3−δ solid solution.