Formation of La2Zr2O7 or SrZrO3 on cathode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

Formation of La2Zr2O7 and SrZrO3 on cathode-supported solid oxide fuel cells has been characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). Thin yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) film with a thickness of about 15 μm was fabricated on the porous La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 (LS0.2M) and La0.65Sr0.35MnO3 (LS0.35M) cathodes by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) followed with sintering at 1400 °C for various times. The La2Zr2O7 (LZ) and SrZrO3 (SZ) formed at the interface between YSZ thin film and LS0.2M and LS0.35M substrate, respectively, after sintering at 1400 °C for 52 h, were identified by XRD. LZ was also determined by TEM and SAED for the samples sintered at 1400 °C for 2 h. The grain size of LZ suddenly increased from 100 nm to a micrometer scale when the sintered time increased from 2 to 12 h.