The properties of yttria stabilized zirconia（YSZ） related to the sintering process were discussed.YSZ nano-powders about 40-100 nm as raw material,the sub-micrometer grain sizes such as 0.4-3 μm in YSZ were gotten by sintering process at 1300 ℃,which was performed at 1000 ℃ for 2 h,then raised the temperature at the rate of 50 ℃ / h to 1400 ℃,then decreased directly to 1300 ℃ in 30 minutes,finally at 1300 ℃ for 5-20 hours.The ratio of bigger grain size becomes larger as the holding time increasing at 1300 ℃.The grains less than 1 μm are about 50%,eg,43.2%,52.2% and 51.1% related to 1300 ℃ holding 5 hours,8 hours and 10 hours,respectively.As YSZ grain size became small,the electrical conductivities did not decrease,even increased,about 0.20 s/cm at 1000 ℃.The reduced sintering temperature and time were benefited to co-fire with the electrodes in electrode-supported SOFCs.
Ceria-based electrolytes have been widely researched in intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell （SOFC）, which might be operated at 500-600℃. Sintering behavior with lithium oxide as sintering additive and electrical conductivity of gadolinia doped ceria （GdonCe0.902-σ, GDC10） electrolyte was studied in this paper by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS）. As the results,, the fully dense GDC10 electrolytes are obtained at a low temperature of 800℃ with 2.5 mol% Li20 as sintering additive （called 5LiGDCS00）. During sintering process, lithium oxides adsorbed by around GDC10 surface help to sinter at 800~C and are kept at the grain boundary of GDC10 in the end. The fine grains of 100-400 nm and high electrical conductivity of 0.014 S/cm at 600~C in 5LiGDC800 were achieved, which contributed to the lower sintering temperature and enhanced grain boundary conductivity, respectively. Lithium, staying at grain boundary, reduces the depletion of oxygen vacancies in the space charge layers and increases the oxygen vacancy concentration in the grain boundary, which leads to improve the total electrical conductivity of 5LiGDC800.
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer a clean, pollution-free technology for the electrochemical conversion of chemical energy of hydrocarbon fuels into electricity. Many programs are being initiated in the United States, Europe, Japan and so on. The funding for SOFC development worldwide has risen dramatically and this trend is expected to continue for at least the next decades. These development programs are also investigating wider applications of SOFCs in stationary, residential, transportation and military sectors. Finally, it is summarized the key materials and fabrication processes of SOFC in this paper.
