Low temperature assisted chemical coprecipitation synthesis of 8YSZ plasma sprayable powder for solid oxide fuel cells

Plasma spraying is one of the potential manufacturing technologies widely used in tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) fabrication. The plasma spray technology requires powders with good flowability and large particle size (5-200 μm). A simple, low temperature assisted chemical process was used for the preparation of plasma grade yttria stabilized zirconia powder without any agglomeration process. The powder was characterized by X-ray diffractometry, particle size analysis, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The powder exhibited cubic phase, good flowability and blocky angular shape. The 8YSZ powder was plasma sprayed and the coatings after sintering showed gas tightness (gas leak rate ∼ 1 × 10⁻⁶ mbar l s⁻¹ cm²). This was substantiated by the presence of densely packed grains as seen in the surface FESEM image of the sintered plasma sprayed 8YSZ free form. Conductivity values in par with the values reported in literature were obtained for plasma sprayed 8YSZ coating.