Influence of annealing at intermediate temperature on oxygen transport kinetics of Pr₂NiO_4+δ

Electrical conductivity relaxation (ECR) and oxygen permeation measurements were conducted, at 750 °C, to assess the long-term oxygen transport characteristics of the mixed ionic-electronic conducting Pr₂NiO_4+δ with a K₂NiF₄ structure. The results show that the apparent values for the oxygen diffusion and surface exchange coefficients extracted from the data and the associated oxygen flux increase over 120 h by 1-2 orders of magnitude. The results of post-mortem X-ray diffraction analysis of the samples show partial to virtually complete decomposition of Pr₂NiO_4+δ under the conditions of the experiments to Pr₄Ni₃O_10+δ, PrNiO_3-δ, Pr₆O₁₁, and traces of NiO. Pulse ¹⁸O-¹⁶O isotopic exchange (PIE) measurements confirmed fast surface exchange kinetics of the higher-order Ruddlesden-Popper phase Pr₄Ni₃O_10+δ and Pr₆O₁₁ formed upon decomposition. Additional factors related to the microstructure, however, need to be considered to explain the observations.