This report covers the following tasks: Task 1--Design, fabricate and evaluate ceramic to metal seals based on graded ceramic powder/metal braze joints; Task 2--Evaluate the effect of defect configuration on ceramic membrane conductivity and long term chemical and structural stability; Task 3--Determine materials mechanical properties under conditions of high temperatures and reactive atmospheres; Task 4--Evaluate phase stability and thermal expansion of candidate perovskite membranes and develop techniques to support these materials on porous metal structures; Task 5--Assess the microstructure of membrane materials to evaluate the effects of vacancy-impurity association, defect clusters, and vacancy-dopant association on the membrane performance and stability; and Task 6--Measure kinetics of oxygen uptake and transport in ceramic membrane materials under commercially relevant conditions using isotope labeling techniques.

Conversion of natural gas to liquid fuels and chemicals is a major goal for the Nation as it enters the 21st Century. Technically robust and economically viable processes are needed to capture the value of the vast reserves of natural gas on Alaska's North Slope, and wean the Nation from dependence on foreign petroleum sources. Technologies that are emerging to fulfill this need are all based syngas as an intermediate. Syngas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) is a fundamental building block from which chemicals and fuels can be derived. Lower cost syngas translates directly into more cost-competitive fuels and chemicals. The currently practiced commercial technology for making syngas is either steam methane reforming (SMR) or a two-step process involving cryogenic oxygen separation followed by natural gas partial oxidation (POX). These high-energy, capital-intensive processes do not always produce syngas at a cost that makes its derivatives competitive with current petroleum-based fuels and chemicals.

In the present quarter, oxygen transport perovskite ceramic membranes are evaluated for strength and fracture in oxygen gradient conditions. Oxygen gradients are created in tubular membranes by insulating the inner surface from the reducing environment by platinum foils. Fracture in these test conditions is observed to have a gradient in trans and inter-granular fracture as opposed to pure trans-granular fracture observed in homogeneous conditions. Fracture gradients are reasoned to be due to oxygen gradient set up in the membrane, variation in stoichiometry across the thickness and due to varying decomposition of the parent perovskite. The studies are useful in predicting fracture criterion in actual reactor conditions and in understanding the initial evolution of fracture processes.