Nickel Stabilized Zirconia for SOFCs: Synthesis and Characterization

Nanocrystalline tetragonal zirconia is commercially very significant material which finds extensive use as an anode material in SOFCs, as a catalyst oxygen sensor and structural material. Nanocrystalline zirconia powders for high performance anode of SOFCs have been synthesized by co-precipitation route. This technique is very helpful for the promotion of the stabilization of tetragonal phase of ZrO2 in nano level at moderate temperature. The main objective of this paper is to stabilize the t-ZrO2 through precipitation route using NH4OH solution. The processing features and the microstructural characteristics of NiO-ZrO2 have been investigated by DSC-TG, XRD, SEM, and IR spectroscopy.The concentration of nickel-salt plays an important role for the enhancement of stabilized tetragonal phase at moderate temperature. From XRD results it was found that the t-ZrO2 was more stabilized with 20 mol% nickel-salt concentration compared with 40 mol% Ni-salt at the same temperature.