Origins of rapid aging of Ba-based proton conducting perovskites

Proton conducting ceramics are considered as promising membranes for medium temperature fuel cells, water stream electrolyzers and CO 2 /syngas converters. Materials for these applications have to be mechanically and chemically stable at corrosive conditions of temperature and water vapor pressure in order to ensure the long life-time operation. Our comprehensive Raman, infrared, thermogravimetric, thermal expansion and neutron diffraction studies have shown that the choice of A and B elements as well as the material processing (synthesis, geometry, density, etc.) are crucial to control aging of material. We will consider an example of BaZr 0.25 In 0.75 O 3 perovskite to show that several factors such as the carbonation, the traces of secondary AO phases at the grain boundaries as well as the use of samples with highly active surface, i.e. powders or lightly densified ceramics can cause: i) preferential adsorption of surface protonic species such as hydroxides, (hydro)carbonates, water, ii) decreased incorporation of bulk protonic species responsible for the proton conduction, iii) significant modification of the host perovskite structure up to complete crumbling of the material. We will show how to improve potential application of perovskites by understanding and controlling these processes.