The Role of Metal Catalyst on Water Permeation and Stability of BaCe0.8Y0.2O3-delta

WOS: 000448343900007Perovskite type ceramic membranes which exhibit dual ion conduction (proton and oxygen ion conduction) can permeate water and can aid solving operational problems such as temperature gradient and carbon deposition associated with a working solid oxide fuel cell. From this point of view, it is crucial to reveal water transport mechanism and especially the nature of the surface sites that is necessary for water incorporation and evolution. BaCe0.8Y0.2O3-alpha (BCY20) was used as a model proton and oxygen ion conducting membrane in this work. Four different catalytically modified membrane configurations were used for the investigations and water flux was measured as a function of temperature. In addition, CO was introduced to the permeate side in order to test the stability of membrane against water and CO/CO2 and post operation analysis of used membranes were carried out. The results revealed that water incorporation occurs on any exposed electrolyte surface. However, the magnitude of water permeation changes depending on which membrane surface is catalytically modified. The platinum increases the water flux on the feed side whilst it decreases the flux on the permeate side. Water flux measurements suggest that platinum can block water permeation on the permeate side by reducing the access to the lattice oxygen in the surface layer.Ministry of National Education TurkeyMinistry of National Education - TurkeyThe authors would like to acknowledge the Ministry of National Education Turkey for funding. Also, we would like to thank Prof Ian Metcalfe for the useful discussions and School of Chemical Engineering, Newcastle University, UK for the university's resources