(Digital Only Presentation) Effects of Ink Solvent on the Screen-Printing Fabrication and Morphology of LSM-YSZ Thin Films Deposited on YSZ Substrate for Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells

Abstract

Screen-printing is a cheap and easy thin film deposition technique utilized in energy devices fabrication, specifically, in solid oxide electrochemical cells (SOCs). This technique offers simple set-up, film quality control and mass production. In this study, LSM-YSZ, a promising component material for SOCs application was deposited on YSZ electrolyte via screen-printing. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate the effect of the solvent used in screen-printing on the quality of the deposited film. LSM-YSZ precursor powders synthesized via glycine-nitrate combustion process (GNP) were screen-printed on YSZ substrate using different solvents, ethanol and alpha-terpineol. The structure, morphology, and conductivity values of the GNP LSM-YSZ thin films using two solvents were compared. Results showed that both solvents produced a uniform distribution of rhombohedral LSM and cubic YSZ thin films with porous morphologies but alpha-terpineol solvent exhibited more agglomerated particles. Despite having this morphology, alpha-terpineol is still preferred than ethanol due to its reproducibility and scalability as it is less volatile than the other one. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the measured total conductivities of the half-cells using two solvents with the values of 4.63e-3 S/cm and 2.07e-3 S/cm at 700°C, and activation energies of 0.374 eV and 0.483 eV from 500°C - 700°C, for ethanol and alpha-terpineol, respectively.