Stabilized Zirconia - based materials for solid oxide fuel cells obtained by MOCVD and aerosol-CVD

Zirconium dioxide is one of the most studied ceramic materials under various forms (film, powder, bulk, etc.). Pure ZrO2 is monoclinic at room temperature and it undergoes phase transitions to the tetragonal and cubic structures above 1170 and 2370 °C, respectively. The introduction of MgO, CaO, Sc2O3, Y2O3 and other aliovalent oxides1 in the ZrO2 structure allows the ZrO2 stabilization in the cubic fluorite structure from room temperature to its melting point (2680 °C), thus enabling the production of materials for high temperature applications.2,3 At the same time, the doping of ZrO2 increases oxygen ion vacancies with a significant rise of the ZrO2 ionic conductivity. In fact, stabilized ZrO2 is used in oxygen sensors and in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) as electrolyte and anode support. Herein we report the results of two processes to obtain thin film of nanostructured stabilized ZrO2: the former corresponds to a MOCVD deposition of ZrO2 stabilized with aliovalent metal oxides such as CaO, MgO, Y2O3, Sc2O3, and to be used as SOFC electrolyte; the latter consists of an Aerosol-CVD process to produce porous films of stabilized ZrO2 and Ni/c-ZrO2 for SOFC anode applications.