Oxygen adsorption and desorption characteristics of LSCF5582 membranes for oxygen separation applications

This study examines the oxygen adsorption and desorption characteristics of La_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−δ (LSCF5582) membranes prepared at sintering temperatures of 1200–1300 °C, with the aim of gaining an insight into their performance in the surface reaction limited regime for oxygen separation applications. The findings of this work are then compared with our experimental data on Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−δ (BSCF5582) membranes. It is demonstrated that the adsorption rate constants of both membranes are two orders of magnitude greater than their respective oxygen desorption rate constants as the oxygen adsorption occurs in less than 24 s whilst the oxygen desorption takes approximately one hour to reach equilibrium. The activation energy for oxygen adsorption of LSCF5582 reduced to a quarter of its value with increasing the sintering temperature from 1200 °C to 1300 °C. This is attributed to the oxygen exchange occurring more rapidly along the grain boundaries resulting in a lower activation energy. The LSCF5582 grain sintered at 1200 °C is the optimum selection for oxygen separation applications at an operating temperature of 850 °C and oxygen partial pressure of 0.21 bar.