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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2018, 7(4): 325-335 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0282-4
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 21 November 2018

Densification behavior of yttria-stabilized zirconia powders for solid oxide fuel cell electrolytes

Show Author's Information Dhruba PANTHIa,b,  Nader HEDAYATa,  Yanhai DUa( )
College of Aeronautics and Engineering, Kent State University, 1400 Lefton Esplanade, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA
Department of Engineering Technology, Kent State University at Tuscarawas, 330 University Dr NE, New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663, USA
Keywords:
yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), SOFC electrolyte, densification, shrinkage, co-sintering
Cite this article:
PANTHI D, HEDAYAT N, DU Y. Densification behavior of yttria-stabilized zirconia powders for solid oxide fuel cell electrolytes. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2018, 7(4): 325-335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0282-4
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Abstract Full text About this article

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is the most common electrolyte material for solid oxide fuel cells. Herein, we conducted a comparative study on the densification behavior of three different kinds of commercial 8 mol% YSZ powders: (i) TZ-8Y (Tosoh, Japan), (ii) MELox 8Y (MEL Chemicals, UK), and (iii) YSZ-HT (Huatsing Power, China). The comparison was made on both the self- supporting pellets and thin-film electrolytes coated onto a NiO–YSZ anode support. For the pellets, MELox 8Y showed the highest densification at lower sintering temperatures with 93% and 96% of the theoretical density at 1250 and 1300 ℃, respectively. Although YSZ-HT showed a higher sintering rate than TZ-8Y, a sintering temperature of 1350 ℃ was required for both the powders to reach 95% of the theoretical density. For the thin-film electrolytes, on the other hand, YSZ-HT showed the highest sintering rate with a dense microstructure at a co-sintering temperature of 1250 ℃. Our results indicate that besides the average particle size, other factors such as particle size distribution and post-processing play a significant role in determining the sintering rate and densification behavior of the YSZ powders. Additionally, a close match in the sintering shrinkage of the electrolyte and anode support is important for facilitating the densification of the thin-film electrolytes.


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About this article

Densification behavior of yttria-stabilized zirconia powders for solid oxide fuel cell electrolytes

Show Author's information Dhruba PANTHIa,b, Nader HEDAYATa, Yanhai DUa( )
College of Aeronautics and Engineering, Kent State University, 1400 Lefton Esplanade, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA
Department of Engineering Technology, Kent State University at Tuscarawas, 330 University Dr NE, New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663, USA

Abstract

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is the most common electrolyte material for solid oxide fuel cells. Herein, we conducted a comparative study on the densification behavior of three different kinds of commercial 8 mol% YSZ powders: (i) TZ-8Y (Tosoh, Japan), (ii) MELox 8Y (MEL Chemicals, UK), and (iii) YSZ-HT (Huatsing Power, China). The comparison was made on both the self- supporting pellets and thin-film electrolytes coated onto a NiO–YSZ anode support. For the pellets, MELox 8Y showed the highest densification at lower sintering temperatures with 93% and 96% of the theoretical density at 1250 and 1300 ℃, respectively. Although YSZ-HT showed a higher sintering rate than TZ-8Y, a sintering temperature of 1350 ℃ was required for both the powders to reach 95% of the theoretical density. For the thin-film electrolytes, on the other hand, YSZ-HT showed the highest sintering rate with a dense microstructure at a co-sintering temperature of 1250 ℃. Our results indicate that besides the average particle size, other factors such as particle size distribution and post-processing play a significant role in determining the sintering rate and densification behavior of the YSZ powders. Additionally, a close match in the sintering shrinkage of the electrolyte and anode support is important for facilitating the densification of the thin-film electrolytes.

Keywords: yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), SOFC electrolyte, densification, shrinkage, co-sintering

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 25 December 2017
Revised: 29 April 2018
Accepted: 09 May 2018
Published: 21 November 2018
Issue date: December 2018

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© The author(s) 2018

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Open Access The articles published in this journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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