Synthesis and electrical properties of nanostructured Ba ₂SnYO_5.5 proton conductor

Ba₂SnYO_5.5 nanopowders were synthesized by a gel polymerization method. In this process, a gel containing Ba, Sn and Y cations has been obtained by the polymerization of acrylic acid using N,N′-methylene bis-acrylamide as a cross-linking reagent and hydrogen peroxide as an igniting reagent. The gel was calcined at 1200 °C, giving rise to the Ba₂SnYO_5.5 single-phase nanopowders with the grain size ranging from 50 nm to 70 nm. Nanopowders were sintered at 1150 °C by spark plasma sintering (SPS) to obtain dense nanostructure materials (> 95%) containing grains whose size ranges between 70 nm and 100 nm. Nanostructured Ba₂SnYO_5.5 shows a good chemical stability in wet atmosphere. However, its protonic conductivity decreases compared with that of microcrystallin Ba₂SnYO_5.5 ceramics.