Solution combustion synthesis of nano particle La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 powder by a unique oxidant-fuel combination and its characterization

Strontium-doped Lanthanum manganite (Li1−xSrxMnO3) is the most used cathode material in modern Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). A large quantity of LSM is required for making MW scale SOFC units. Many methods of preparation has been reported by various researchers. These include amorphous citrate process, freeze drying, spray pyrolysis, sol-gel, glycine nitrate method and self propagating high temperature synthesis etc. In this paper, a solution combustion synthesis method has been described using a unique combination of oxidant and fuel, nitrate-acetate stoichiometrically, which not only produces nano particle LSM powder but is safe even in large scale production due to gradual combustion without causing any fire hazard or explosion condition which is usually found in most of the solution combustion synthesis reactions. The powder obtained in this method has been characterized by XRD, SEM, particle size analysis, surface area analysis etc. The results have been found to be quite good and suitable for SOFC application. This powder has also been used in forming tubular structure as a part of preliminary experiments to make solid oxide fuel small cell.