Effects of particle size of 8 mol% Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) and additive Ta2O5 on the phase composition and the microstructure of sintered YSZ electrolyte

The chemical stability and sinterability of nano- and micro-sized yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) powders were investigated, and the effect of Ta2O5 additive on the sinterability of YSZ electrolyte was also studied. Addition of Ta2O5 easily causes phase transformation of YSZ from cubic to monoclinic, and thus unfavorable for the improvement of ionic conductivity of YSZ electrolyte. Nano-sized YSZ easily causes abnormal grain growth and hence readily results in inhomogeneous microstructure of YSZ matrix, while micro-sized YSZ displays relatively low sinterability. Comparatively, mixture with 50 wt.% nano-sized and 50 wt.% micro-sized YSZ powders exhibits high sinterability and could be sintered to homogeneous microstructure, which can be used as starting materials to prepare dense YSZ electrolyte at low temperatures.