Electrical behavior of nickel coated YSZ cermet prepared by electroless coating technique

Nickel–yttria stabilized zirconia (Ni/YSZ) cermet has been prepared by coating YSZ particles with metallic nickel using electroless coating technique. Concentration of nickel was varied between 7.23 and 64.99 wt%. Bulk samples were prepared using these nickel coated YSZ powders by uniaxial pressing followed by sintering in the temperature range 1200–1350 ◦C with a soaking time of 2–6 h. A thorough investigation on the electrical characteristics of the samples has been performed and an attempt has been made to study the effect of starting YSZ particle size, matrix density on the temperature dependence of conductivity of the cermet. Samples prepared by this technique shows metallic conductivity at a Ni concentration as low as 27.04 wt%. A detailed microstructural investigation of the samples is also reported

Processing microstructure property correlation of porous Ni-YSZ cermets anode for SOFC application

The present paper investigates microstructural properties and electrical conductivity of cermets prepared by a solid-state technique, a liquid-dispersion technique and a novel electroless coating technique. The Ni-YSZ processed through different techniques shows varying temperature- conductivity behaviour. The cermets synthesized by electroless coating were found to be electronically conducting with 20 volume % Nickel, which is substantially lower than that normally reported. The conductivity of Ni-YSZ cermets was found highest for the samples prepared by an electroless coating technique and lowest for the samples prepared by a solid-state technique, the samples prepared from liquid-dispersion show an intermediate value for a constant nickel content. The variation in electrical conductivity has been well explained from the microstructure of the samples