Electrophoretic deposition on non-conducting substrates: The case of YSZ film on NiO–YSZ composite substrates for solid oxide fuel cell application

This paper report the results of our investigation on electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of YSZ particles from its suspension in acetylacetone onto a non-conducting NiO–YSZ substrate. In principle, it is not possible to carry out electrophoretic deposition on non-conducting substrates. In this case, the EPD of YSZ particles on a NiO–YSZ substrate was made possible through the use of an adequately porous substrate. The continuous pores in the substrates, when saturated with the solvent, helped in establishing a “conductive path” between the electrode and the particles in suspension. Deposition rate was found to increase with increasing substrate porosity up to a certain value. The higher the applied voltage, the faster the deposition. For a given applied voltage, there exists a threshold porosity value below which EPD becomes practically impossible. An SOFC constructed on bi-layers of NiO–YSZ/YSZ with YSZ layer thickness of 40 μm exhibited an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.97 V at 650 °C and peak power density of 263.8 mW cm⁻² at 850 °C when tested with H₂ as fuel and ambient air as oxidant.