The influence of the way of alumina addition on properties improvement of 3YSZ material

Abstract

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is the best known ceramic-oxide material employed as a component of either solid electrolyte or anode cermet material for intermediate solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC). The properties of traditionally produced (by mechanical mixing of oxides) Al2O3/3YSZ composite with the same composition materials obtained by citrate and impregnation methods and with properties of pure tetragonal zirconia (3YSZ) were compared. The materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction, SEM observations with EDX analysis, density and impedance spectroscopy measurements. The results shown that Al2O3/3YSZ composites reveals higher conductivity than pure 3YSZ and that addition of alumina (regardless of methods) improve electric properties of resulting materials. Taking into account application of this materials as anode in IT-SOFC the determined values of energy activation of conductivity and microstructural properties of composites show that materials obtained by citric method are the most promising.