Investigation into the Effect of Sulfate and Borate Incorporation on the Structure and Properties of SrFeO3-δ

In this paper, we demonstrate the successful incorporation of sulfate and borate into SrFeO3-δ, and characterise the effect on the structure and conductivity, with a view to possible utilisation as a cathode material in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. The incorporation of low levels of sulfate/borate is sufficient to cause a change from a tetragonal to a cubic cell. Moreover, whereas heat treatment of undoped SrFeO3-δ under N2 leads to a transformation to brownmillerite Sr2Fe2O5 with oxygen vacancy ordering, the sulfate/borate-doped samples remain cubic under the same conditions. Thus, sulfate/borate doping appears to be successful in introducing oxide ion vacancy disorder in this system.