Influence of barium dissolution on microstructure and oxygen permeation performance of Ba1.0Co0.7Fe0.2Nb0.1O3−δ membrane in aqueous medium

Abstract Slip casting is a significant method and it is widely used in ceramic manufacturing. In order to investigate the influence of water processing in slurry fabrication on microstructure and oxygen permeation of Ba 1.0 Co 0.7 Fe 0.2 Nb 0.1 O 3−δ (BCFN) membrane, disk-shaped membranes are made from powders with/without water processing and these membranes are checked by XRD, SEM and oxygen permeation measurement. We find barium of material dissolves into water during slurry fabrication through ICP-OES method and the A-site stoichiometric ratio is 0.986 because of the water processing, and the oxygen permeation flux of water-treated membrane is 25.2% lower than that of original membrane after sintered at 1110 °C. With the increase of sintering temperature, the oxygen permeation of water-treated membrane almost recovers and is only 7% lower than the original membrane while sintered at 1150 °C. A composition segregation and homogenization mechanism is proposed through microstructure and properties analysis.