A Review of Applications, Prospects, and Challenges of Proton-Conducting Zirconates in Electrochemical Hydrogen Devices

TL;DR

This review discusses the use of proton-conducting zirconates in electrochemical hydrogen devices, highlighting recent advances, applications, challenges, and future research directions in this promising energy technology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of doping strategies, experimental setups, and performance of zirconate electrolytes, and discusses challenges and future pathways for research in this field.

Findings

Zirconate-based electrolytes exhibit high stability and proton conductivity.

Doping schemes significantly influence electrolyte performance.

Challenges include optimizing doping and addressing material stability.

Abstract

In the future, when fossil fuels are exhausted, alternative energy sources will be essential for everyday needs. Hydrogen-based energy can play a vital role in this aspect. This energy is green, clean, and renewable. Elec-trochemical hydrogen devices have been used extensively in nuclear power plants to manage hydrogen-based renewable fuel. Doped zirconate materials are commonly used as an electrolyte in these electrochemical devices. These materials have excellent physical stability and high proton transport numbers, which make them suitable for multiple applications. Doping enhances the physical and electronic properties of zirconate materials and makes them ideal for practical applications. This review highlights the applications of zirconate-based pro-ton-conducting materials in electrochemical cells, particularly in tritium monitors, tritium recovery, hydrogen sensors, and hydrogen pump systems. The central section of this review summarizes recent investigations and provides a comprehensive insight into the various doping schemes, experimental setup, instrumentation, op-timum operating conditions, morphology, composition, and performance of zirconate electrolyte materials. In addition, different challenges that are hindering zirconate materials from achieving their full potential in elec-trochemical hydrogen devices are discussed. Finally, this paper lays out a few pathways for aspirants who wish to undertake research in this field.