Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) film produced from an aqueous nano-YSZ slurry: preparation and characterization

Abstract

Research on preparing yttria stabilized-zirconia film was conducted with polyacrylic acid (PAA) dispersant (YSZ film-A) and mix of PAA with surfactant blend as a dispersant (YSZ film-B). The YSZ powder was prepared by introducing nano-yttrium dioxide powder to nano-zirconia powder through solid-state reaction. The surfactant blend consists of sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS (HLB 40), and Tween-80 (HLB 15) at a definite ratio to produce a required-HLB (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic-Balance) value. The prepared-YSZ films were analyzed to study its crystallinity, crystal structure and its cell parameters, surface morphology, particle size, the thickness of the film, thermal properties, the functional group content, and the electrical conductivity. The result found that both YSZ film is in cubic structure with a space group of Fm3m. The crystal structure is exactly similar to the YSZ powder. A characteristic peak of Zr (Y)-O vibration at 561.31–561.24 cm−1 appears from both YSZ film as well as from the prepared YSZ powder. SEM image shows YSZ film-A more compact than YSZ film-B, with the particle size of 11.92 ± 1.41 μm. Meanwhile, the particle size of the YSZ film-B is 14.41 ± 2.08 μm. Both YSZ film shows a proper ionic conductivity for solid electrolyte purpose at 600 °C, i.e., 2.08 × 10−4 Scm−1 and 2.25 × 10−4 Scm−1 for YSZ film-A and YSZ film-B, respectively. The measured activation energies (Ea) for ionic migration are 0.687 eV and 0.562 eV for YSZ film A and YSZ film-B, respectively. Keywords: YSZ film, Aqueous slurry, PAA dispersant, Surfactant blend, Solid electrolyte