The Effect of Various Chelating Agents on the Thermal Decomposition of Cerate-Zirconate Ceramics Powder

In this work, BaCe0.54Zr0.36Y0.1O2.95 (BCZY) ceramics powder was synthesized using four types of chelating agents by a modified sol-gel method. The aim of this work is to study thermal decomposition of the sample that prepared using metal nitrate salt (M+), respective to chelating agents (C) and ethylene glycol (EG) at molar ratio of M+:C:EG = 3:3:2. The gel obtained was heated in a furnace at 325 °C and 1100 °C, respectively to produce light-yellow powder. The thermal behavior of the dried powder (T=325 °C) was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). TGA results indicate that all the samples were almost completly decomposed at ∼ 900 °C except for NTA that showed the lowest thermal decomposition at 580 °C. FTIR spectra illustrated that the carbonate residue still remained in the powders even after calcined at 1100 °C. It was found that the different chelating agents used lead to the different thermal characteristics of the BCZY powder.