The effects of templating synthesis procedures on the microstructure of Yttria Stabilised Zirconia (YSZ) and NiO/YSZ templated thin films

The microstructure of the electrodes, in particular the anode, is of vast importance in the present stage of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) development. Templating methods provide well ordered, inverse opal, macroporous structures for small quantities of powder, scaling up the procedure to produce commercial quantities of powder remains a challenge. This study examined different synthesis conditions for producing larger amounts of high quality YSZ and NiO/YSZ electrodes using the templating technique and the effects of these on microstructure. The study revealed that as the quantity of the polystyrene (PS) spheres for the template is increased the microstructure quality is reduced, due to increasing difficulty in homogeneous permeation of the template. Thus the optimisation of the ratio of PS spheres to powder is of great importance and in this study was found to be around 2:1, however the addition of NiO has additional effects on the microstructure.