Use of waste water glass as silica supplier in synthesis of pure and Mg-doped lanthanum silicate powders for IT-SOFC application

Abstract

Water glass in alkali solution (Na2SiO3/NaOH) an abundant effluent, generated in the alkaline fusion of zircon sand, represents a potential silica source to be converted in useful silica technological application. Actually, the generation of energy by environmental-friendly method is one of the major challenges for researchers. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) is efficient and environmentally clean technique to energy production, since it converts chemical energy into electrical power, directly. Apatite-type lanthanum silicates are promising materials for application as an electrolyte in intermediate temperature SOFC (IT-SOFC) because of their higher ionic conductivity, in temperatures of range 600–700 °C, than conventional zirconia electrolytes. In this work, pure (La9,56(SiO4)6O2,34) and Mg-doped (La9,8Si5,7Mg0,3O26,4) lanthanum silicate were synthesized, from that rich effluent. Using the sol-gel followed by precipitation method, the single crystalline apatite phase of both silicates was obtained by thermal treatment at 900 °C of their precursors. Sintered ceramic samples reached density of higher than 90%.