Abstract

• Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is an electrochemical device that converts the energy of a chemical reaction directly into electrical energy. SOFC materials of Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LiCoO2) and Lithium Nickel Oxide (LiNiO2) were prepared by solid-state reaction method. Structural, microstructural, optical and electrical properties were studied by XRD, SEM, UV-VIS-NIR and electrical conductivity measurement. XRD patterns reveal that the samples analogous to hexagonal structure. The crystallite sizes of the samples were also estimated by using the most intense peaks and obtained as 77.14 nm for LiCoO2and 21.40 nm for LiNiO2 respectively. SEM micrographs indicated that the grain shape of the samples was block shape with clear grain boundary. The energy band gaps Eg were estimated by using the (αhυ)2 vs. hυ graphs and obtained as 2.69 eV for LiCoO2 and 0.52 eV for LiNiO2. The samples exhibited as the superionic conductors and their activation energies were obtained as 0.4363 eV for LiCoO2 and 0.4370 eV for LiNiO2.