Discovery of a new crystal structure family of oxide-ion conductors: NdBaInO4

Oxide-ion conducting ceramic materials have received considerable attention because of their potential applications in solid oxide fuel cells, oxygen separation membranes, and gas sensors.

Currently, most research about oxide-ion conducting ceramics is limited to materials with specific structure-types, such as fluorites, perovskites, K₂NiF₄, mellilites, and apatites. However, it is necessary to investigate new structure-type ceramics for the further development of oxide-ion conductors.

Recently, a research group led by Masatomo Yashima and Kotaro Fujii of Tokyo Institute of Technology discovered the new crystal structure family of oxide-ion conductors of NdBaInO₄ using a concept of structure design based on ionic size.

NdBaInO₄ was synthesized by a solid-state reaction and the crystal structure was determined from synchrotron and neutron powder diffraction data.

The crystal structure analysis revealed that NdBaInO₄ belongs to a completely new structure family. The oxide-ion conduction was confirmed by electrical conductivity measurements. Furthermore, the research group succeeded in improving the oxide-ion conductivity by about 20 times by Sr doping at Nd sites that yielded the composition of Nd_0.9Sr_0.1BaInO_3.95.

The discovery of this new material of NdBaInO₄ is expected to lead to the development of new ionic conductors for better solid oxide fuel cells, oxygen concentrators, and electronic materials.

Figure 1. Crystal structure of NdBaInO₄

Reference1

Authors:	Kotaro Fujii, Yuichi Esaki, Kazuki Omoto, Masatomo Yashima, Akinori Hoshikawa, Toru Ishigaki, James R. Hester
Title of original paper:	New Perovskite-Related Structure Family of Oxide-Ion Conducting Materials NdBaInO4
Journal, volume, pages and year:	Chemistry of Materials, 26, 2488 (2014).
DOI :	10.1021/cm500776x
Affiliations:	Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology; Frontier Research Center for Applied Atomic Sciences, Ibaraki University; The Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Reference2

Authors:	Kotaro Fujii, Masahiro Shiraiwa, Yuichi Esaki, Masatomo Yashima, Su Jae Kim, Seongsu Lee
Title of original paper:	Improved oxide-ion conductivity of NdBaInO4 by Sr doping
Journal, volume, pages and year:	Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 3, 11985 (2015).
DOI :	10.1039/C5TA01336D
Affiliations:	Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology; Neutron Science Division, Research Reactor Utilization Department, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute

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