A Method to Measure the Proton Conductivity of LiNaSO[sub 4] under Fuel Cell Conditions

A method has been developed for measurement of proton conductivity of hydrogen-reducible ionic conductors under protonic fuel cell conditions in which the reducible electrolyte is sandwiched between layers of a nonreducible proton-conducting electrolyte in a disk. The proton conductivity of under the fuel-cell condition was determined with Y-doped (BCY) as the nonreducible sandwich layers, using conventional methods under hydrogen at high temperature, under which conditions would otherwise be chemically unstable. and BCY had good chemical and mechanical compatibility in the sandwich disk. The major portion of the ionic conductivity of at is due to and ion transport, and proton conductivity ( at to at ) accounts for only 5–10% of total ion conductivity ( at to at ). These data explain the poor performance of hydrocarbon conversion fuel cells using as the electrolyte.