Determination of Oxide Ion Conductivity in Ba-Doped LaYbO3 Proton-Conducting Perovskites via an Oxygen Isotope Exchange Method

Proton-conducting oxides have garnered much attention as electrolyte materials of electrochemical devices operating at intermediate temperatures ranging 400–700 °C. For the implementation, quantifying the transport number of oxygen ions is crucial to predict the fuel utilization efficiency of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The acceptor-doped LaYbO3 proton conductors are one of the candidates for the electrolyte material of electrochemical devices such as SOFCs because of their high pure proton conduction. However, the oxide ion conductivity in this material is not quantified yet. Here, we evaluate the tracer diffusion coefficient (D*) of 5 mol % Ba-doped LaYbO3 by the oxygen isotope exchange and depth profile technique using secondary ion mass spectrometry. It is found that the oxygen ion conductivities in this material are lower than 10–4 S cm–1 below 800 °C, less than 2% to the total conductivity. We also visualize the domain of dominant conduction in this material. It reveals that proton conduction is dominant in fairly wide areas of the atmospheric condition, in particular below 600 °C, suggesting that the Ba-doped LaYbO3 is suitable for the SOFC electrolyte in terms of transport number.