Functional materials, particularly metal oxides, have been the focus of much attention in solid state chemistry for many years and impact every aspect of modern life. The approach adopted in this thesis to access desirable functionality for enhanced fundamental understanding is via modifying existing materials by deploying reducing synthetic procedures. This work spans several groups of inorganic crystalline materials, but is unified by the development of new properties within host compounds of particular relevance to solid oxide fuel cell technology, which allow interstitial oxide ion conduction at elevated temperatures. The Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₂e₂ electride was successfully synthesized by replacing the mobile extra-framework oxygen ions with electrons acting as anions. The high concentration of electrons in the C12A7 electride gives rise to an exceptionally high electronic conductivity of up to 245 S cm⁻¹ at room temperature. Making use of the high density of electrons in Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₂e₂ electride, the strong N-N bonds in N₂ was found to be broken when heating Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₂e₂ in a N₂ atmosphere. A reaction between silicate apatites and the titanium metal yielded another completely new electride material La₉.₀Sr₁.₀(SiO₄)₆O₂.₄e₀.₂ which was found to be a semiconductor. To fully understand the role of oxygen interstitials in silicate apatites, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) was employed as the main technique in probing how the oxygen nonstoichiometry is accommodated at the atomic level. Atomic-resolution imaging of interstitial oxygen in La₉.₀Sr₁.₀(SiO₄)₆O₂.₅ proved to be a success in this thesis. Substitution of oxygen in 2a and interstitial sites with fluoride ions in La[subscript(8+y)]Sr[subscript(2- z)](SiO₄)₆O[subscript(2+(3y-2z)/2)] (0<y<2, 0<z<2) could be an approach to enriching the functionalities in the apatite structure. A wide range of fluoride substitution levels was tolerated in La[subscript(10-x)]Sr[subscript(x)](SiO₄)₆O[subscript(3-1.5x)]F[subscript(2x)] (x= 0.67, 1, 1.5, 2) and AC impedance measurements were found in support of a tentative conclusion that fluoride ions could be mobile in fluorinated apatites. The last part of this thesis was focused on a new class of fast oxide ion conductors based on Ge₅P₆O₂₅ whose performance was superior to both La₉.₀Sr₁.₀(SiO₄)₆O₂.₅ and Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃ in the low temperature range.

In this thesis, the focus is on studying BaZrO3-BaCeO3 based proton conductors due to that they represent very promising proton conductors to be used for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (ITSOFCs). Here, dense BaZr0.5Ce0.3Y0.2O3-δ (BZCY532) ceramics were selected as the major studied materials. These ceramics were prepared by different sintering methods and doping strategies. Based on achieved results, the thesis work can simply be divided into the following parts: 1) An improved synthesis method, which included a water-based milling procedure followed by a freeze-drying post-processing, was presented. A lowered calcination and sintering temperature for a Hf0.7Y0.3O2-δ (YSH) compound was achieved. The value of the relative density in this work was higher than previously reported data. It is also concluded that this improved method can be used for mass-production of ceramics. 2) As the solid-state reactive sintering (SSRS) represent a cost-effective sintering method, the sintering behaviors of proton conductors BaZrxCe0.8-xLn0.2O3-δ (x = 0.8, 0.5, 0.1; Ln = Y, Sm, Gd, Dy) during the SSRS process were investigated. According to the obtained results, it was found that the sintering temperature will decrease, when the Ce content increases from 0 (BZCLn802) to 0.3 (BZCLn532) and 0.7 (BZCLn172). Moreover, the radii of the dopant ions similar to the radii of Zr4+ or Ce4+ ions show a better sinterability. This means that it is possible to obtain dense ceramics at a lower temperature. Moreover, the conductivities of dense BZCLn532 ceramics were determined. The conductivity data indicate that dense BZCY532 ceramics are good candidates as either oxygen ion conductors or proton conductors used for ITSOFCs. 3) The effect of NiO on the sintering behaviors, morphologies and conductivities of BZCY532 based electrolytes were systematically investigated. According to the achieved results, it can be concluded that the dense BZCY532B ceramics (NiO was added during ball-milling before a powder mixture calcination) show an enhanced oxygen and proton conductivity. Also, that BZCY532A (NiO was added after a powder mixture calcination) and BZCY532N (No NiO was added in the whole preparation procedures) showed lower values. In addition, dense BZCY532B and BZCY532N ceramics showed only small electronic conductivities, when the testing temperature was lower than 800 ℃. However, the BZCY532A ceramics revealed an obvious electronic conduction, when they were tested in the range of 600 ℃ to 800 ℃. Therefore, it is preferable to add the NiO powder during the BZCY532 powder preparation, which can lower the sintering temperature and also increase the conductivity. 4) Dense BZCY532 ceramics were successfully prepared by using the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method at a temperature of 1350 ℃ with a holding time of 5 min. It was found that a lower sintering temperature (&lt; 1400 ℃) and a very fast cooling rate (&gt; 200 ℃/min) are two key parameters to prepare dense BZCY532 ceramics. These results confirm that the SPS technique represents a feasible and cost-effective sintering method to prepare dense Ce-containing BaZrO3-BaCeO3 based proton conductors. 5) Finally, a preliminary study for preparation of Ce0.8Sm0.2O2-δ (SDC) and BZCY532 basedcomposite electrolytes was carried out. The novel SDC-BZCY532 based composite electrolytes were prepared by using the powder mixing and co-sintering method. The sintering behaviors, morphologies and ionic conductivities of the composite electrolytes were investigated. The obtained results show that the composite electrolyte with a composition of 60SDC-40BZCY532 has the highest conductivity. In contrast, the composite electrolyte with a composition of 40SDC-60BZCY532 shows the lowest conductivity. In summary, the results show that BaZrO3-BaCeO3 based proton-conducting ceramic materials represent very promising materials for future ITSOFCs electrolyte applications. / <p>QC 20150423</p>

Les travaux de thèse présentés dans ce manuscrit portent sur le développement nouveaux électrolytes sans recours aux solvants conventionnels inflammables afin de répondre à la problématique de sécurité des batteries. La première partie de ce travail vise à développer des électrolytes gélifiés à partir de liquide ionique phosphonium. Une étude est réalisée sur la compatibilité entre l'électrolyte et le polymère hôte époxy/amine ainsi que de l'influence du LI sur la polymérisation du réseau. Les propriétés thermiques, viscoélastiques et de transport ionique des gels sont discutées. Parmi les électrolytes gélifiés obtenus, le gel contenant l'électrolyte (1 M LiTFSI + LI [P66614][TFSI]) a montré des propriétés électrochimiques intéressantes. Un système gélifié Li|LFP a été mis en œuvre et une bonne stabilité en cyclage à 100 °C a été obtenue. La deuxième partie de ce travail consiste au développement de nouveaux électrolytes mésomorphes favorisant un transport d’ions lithium par saut. Un composé anionique a été synthétisé à partir d’une réaction époxy/amine entre le 4-amino-1-naphtalènesulfonate de lithium et un diglycidylether aliphatique. Différentes techniques de caractérisation ont été utilisées afin d’établir un lien structure/propriétés. Les résultats ont permis de mettre en évidence une organisation supramoléculaire lamellaire permettant d’obtenir des canaux de conduction d’ions lithium. Les mesures de transport ionique ont permis de mettre en évidence un transport d'ions lithium suivant une loi d'Arrhenius (indépendant du squelette moléculaire) ce qui est la preuve d'un mécanisme de transport d'ions lithium par saut. Les premiers tests électrochimiques ont révélé une bonne stabilité de ces électrolytes vis à vis du lithium et un transport d’ions lithium réversible dans une cellule symétrique Li|Li. A l'issue de ces travaux, les perspectives sont discutées afin d'améliorer les performances de ces électrolytes. / The thesis work presented in this manuscript focuses on the development of new electrolytes without the use of flammable conventional solvents to improve the security problem batteries. The first part of this work is the preparation of gelled electrolytes from phosphonium ionic liquid. A study is performed on the compatibility between the electrolyte and the polymer host epoxy / amine as well as the influence of the polymerization LI on the network. The thermal properties, and ionic transport viscoelastic gels are discussed. Among the obtained gelled electrolyte, the gel containing the electrolyte (1 M LiTFSI + LI [P66614] [TFSI]) showed interesting electrochemical properties. A gelled system Li | LFP has been implemented and good cycling stability at 100 ° C was obtained. The second part of this work is the development of new liquid crystal electrolytes promotes transport of lithium ions with hopping mechanism. An anionic compound was synthesized from reaction of an epoxy / amine from lithium 4-amino-1-naphthalenesulfonate and an aliphatic diglycidyl ether. Various characterization technical were used to establish a link structure / properties. The results allowed to show a lamellar supramolecular organization to obtain lithium ion conduction channels. The ion transport measurement helped to highlight a transport of lithium ions following an Arrhenius law (independent of the molecular backbone) which is evidence of a transport mechanism of lithium ions with hopping mechanism. The first electrochemical tests showed good stability of these electrolytes with lithium electrode and a reversible lithium ion transport in a symmetrical cell Li | Li. Following this work, the prospects are discussed to improve the performance of these electrolytes.