Investigation of structural, electrical and ionic properties of La0.6Ca0.4Fe0.8Ni0.2O3 as an IT-SOFC cathode synthesized through microwave-assisted method

In this paper, structural, electrical and ionic properties of La0.6Ca0.4Ni0.2Fe0.8O3-delta synthesized with microwaveassisted heating is investigated and compared with a sample synthesized by conventional method. Samples are prepared by sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction indicates that both samples have orthorhombic symmetry with Pnma space group. The electrical conductivity is measured by four-probe method and the maximum electrical conductivity of the microwave-assisted sample (LCFN-MWC) is about 29.6 Scm- 1. Ionic properties of samples are studied using electrical relaxation technique. Oxygen diffusion coefficient and oxygen exchange coefficient of LCFN-MWC are found to be 1.3 x 10(-4) cm(2)S(-1) and 6.4 x 10-3 cmS(-1) at 600 degrees C, respectively. Moreover, the associated activation energies are about 0.70 eV and 0.30 eV for LCFN-MWC.