Preparation of crack-free nanocrystalline yttria-stabilized zironia

Abstract

In recent research and development, yttria-stabilized zirconia have become increasingly important for many industrial applications such as gas sensors and solid oxide fuel cells. In many of these applications, the suppression of uncontrolled gas transport due to porosity or cracks is essential. In this work, the influence of the sintering parameters on the crack formation in n-ZrO2 · 9.5 mol% Y2O3, manufactured by room-temperature compaction of sputtered ZrY nanocrystallites with subsequent oxidation and sintering, was studied. A procedure that enables the production of nearly crack-free fully dense samples is presented. © 2007 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.