Abstract
An aqueous metal–organic solution is designed to deposit YSZ thin films by high precision and reliable inkjet printing.
Highlights
In a previous study, we deposited a 1.2 mm thick Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) electrolyte layer by inkjet printing a colloid based solution on a 9 Â 9 cm[2] porous nickel oxide/yttria-stabilized zirconia (NiO/YSZ) anode.[15]
While several studies describing the deposition of sol–gel based YSZ electrolytes for SOFCs are reported in the literature using other processing methodologies such as spin coating[32,33] or dip coating,[34] to the best of our knowledge, no research on inkjet printing of YSZ sol–gel based ink with nanometric features has been reported so far
This analysis clearly indicates that the viscosity values increased with the amount of MDEA in the ink as a possible effect of polycondensation of the alkoxide–ligand complexes.[30,46]
Summary
We deposited a 1.2 mm thick YSZ electrolyte layer by inkjet printing a colloid based solution (i.e. a stabilized oxide particle suspension in an aqueous medium) on a 9 Â 9 cm[2] porous nickel oxide/yttria-stabilized zirconia (NiO/YSZ) anode.[15]. 100–500 nm YSZ powders[21]) This step imposes limitations on the substrates to be used, excluding silicon, metals, and nanostructured substrates, that are usually selected for thinfilm based SOFCs made by PVD and CVD techniques.[14] Alternative to colloidal suspensions, particle-free, chemically reactive solutions contain only dissolved precursor salts or molecules. Inkjet printing of sol–gel based TiO2 films was stabilized by adding a nucleophilic ligand (or chelating agent), N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA).[30] MDEA stabilizes the alkoxide precursors by coordinating the metallic cation from water and inhibiting the hydrolysis/condensation reactions.[31] While several studies describing the deposition of sol–gel based YSZ electrolytes for SOFCs are reported in the literature using other processing methodologies such as spin coating[32,33] or dip coating,[34] to the best of our knowledge, no research on inkjet printing of YSZ sol–gel based ink with nanometric features has been reported so far. We fill this gap for an environmentally-friendly water-based reactive YSZ ink, demonstrating its long term stability, suitable printability and versatility in depositing on several substrates by using both thermal and piezoelectric DoD inkjet printers.[35]
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