Oxide ion and electronic conductivity in Co doped La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.8Mg0.2O3 perovskite oxide

Partial electronic and hole conductivity in Co doped LaGaO3 based perovskite oxide was investigated with the ion-blocking method. Typical S-shaped polarization curves were observed on La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.8Mg0.2−XCoXO3 (0 < X < 0.1). The oxygen partial pressure (PO2) dependence of the electronic and hole conductivity is estimated to be PO2−1/4 and PO21/4, respectively, at temperature higher than 1173 K. However, these decreased to PO2−0.12 and PO20.06 respectively at 873 K. It is considered that the electronic and hole conductivities, that are intrinsic to LSGM are dominant at high temperature, however, the extrinsic electronic and hole conductivity caused by doped Co becomes dominant with decreasing temperature. The estimated transport number of the Co doped sample was higher than 0.95 over the PO2 range from 1 to 10−30 atm, which is slightly higher than that estimated by the H2–O2 cell. The partial electronic and hole conductivities in Co doped LaGaO3 based oxide increased with increasing the amount of Co, in particular, increase in the electronic conductivity is significant at Co content higher than 8.5 mol% to Ga site. PO2 dependence for electronic and hole conductivity is much smaller than that of PO2−1/4 and PO21/4, respectively, suggesting that the electronic and hole conductivity which is extrinsic to LSGM is dominant with increasing Co amount and the specimens behaves like an intrinsic semiconductor. The estimated theoretical efficiency of the electrolyte reaches a maximum value of ca. 0.90 around a thickness of 100 μm in 5 mol% Co doped sample at 0.8 A cm−2 and 1073 K.