Stability of Superprotonic CsH2PO4 Hermetically Sealed in Different Environments

Date

2022-07-17

Authors

Botez, Cristian E.
Martinez, Israel
Price, Alex D.

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Abstract

Using powder X-ray diffraction and AC impedance spectroscopy, we have found that the superprotonic CsH2PO4 (CDP) phase is stable at T = 250 °C when sealed in different volumes (15 mL and 50 mL) of dry air or inert gasses. Under these conditions, CDP’s proton conductivity stays constant at 2.5 × 10−2 S·cm−1 for at least 10 h. On the other hand, removing the gas from the chamber leads to a sharp, two-order-of-magnitude drop in the proton conductivity. Our data show no evidence of a self-generated water vapor atmosphere in the chamber, and the gas pressure at T = 250 °C is several orders of magnitude below the pressures previously used to stabilize CDP’s superprotonic phase. These results demonstrate that hermetically sealing CDP in small gas-filled volumes represents a new method to stabilize the superprotonic phase, which opens new paths for large-scale applications of phosphate-based solid acids as fuel cell electrolytes.

Description

Keywords

fuel cell electrolytes, proton conductivity, impedance spectroscopy

Citation

Materials 15 (14): 4969 (2022)

Department

Physics and Astronomy