Event

Sandrine Ricote
Colorado School of Mines, Mechanical Engineering Department, Golden, CO

 

Abstract: High temperature proton conductors (HTPCs) were discovered in 1981. A unique characteristic of these materials is that they hydrate in the presence of steam: water molecules dissociate into oxygen vacancies to form protonic defects, which diffuse through the dense ceramic by the two-step Grotthuss mechanism (hopping and reorientation steps). Proton diffusion occurs at lower temperatures than oxygen ion conduction (at least 200°C lower). HTPCs have sparked researchers’ interest with many applications developed during the three last decades. Two examples will be detailed in this presentation: Protonic Ceramic Fuel Cells (PCFCs) and membrane reactors. Thin gas-tight membranes are required to obtain promising performances and this is possible thanks to the time- and cost- effective technique of solid-state reactive sintering, which will be the second part of the talk. The incorporation of protonic defects in the lattice generates chemical expansion and can lead to the device failure. Finally, a computational model based on a Nernst-Planck-Poisson formulation and modified to include a chemo-thermo-mechanical component will be presented.

Bio: After obtaining an engineering diploma in material sciences, Sandrine Ricote continued with a PhD in inorganic chemistry at the University of Burgundy (France), working on high temperature proton conductors (HTPC). She spent 4 years at the Danish Technical University, first as post-doctoral fellow and then as a scientist. She joined Colorado School of Mines in 2012 and is now a Research Associate Professor. Her research focuses on high temperature ion-conducting ceramic, and especially on high temperature protons conductors, from processing to characterization. sricote@mines.edu