No abstract

Oxygen ion conductors of zirconia based ceramics are a class of materials with technological applications in several application areas: sensors of chemical species, oxygen pumps, solid oxide fuel cells among others [1]. For these applications, the zirconia must possess the fluorite type crystal structure, or close to it. Such oxides with this structure are the classic oxygen ion conductors [2]. The fluorite structure consists of a cubic lattice of oxygen ions surrounded by cations. The cations are arranged in a face centered cubic structure with anions occupying tetrahedral positions. This leads to an open structure with large empty octahedral interstices.

Solid electrolytes based on stabilized zirconia have been studied a long time ago in its cubic phase because of its electrical properties, which make them excellent candidates to be used in applications such as oxygen sensors and solid oxide fuel cells [1], [2]. Lambda sensor or oxygen sensor, as it is also known, is a device that measures the oxygen concentration of the gases that flow through the exhaust pipe. Physically, the lambda sensor has two electrodes. The outer which is exposed to the exhaust gases and the inner to the air (reference) [3]; these electrodes are made, generally, of porous platinum. The ceramic material, i.e., zirconium oxide, is placed in between the electrodes, so the oxygen ions can move from one electrode to another. As one of the electrodes is exposed to the reference gas, the voltage generated is a measure of the concentration of oxygen in the exhaust gases [4].

In this work, the yttrium rich rare earth concentrate (Re2(CO3)3) was used as additive aiming stabilization of cubic an tetragonal phases at commercial zirconium oxide with 3% mol of yttrium oxide. The use of high purity rare earth oxide as additive is being commercially used and this work aims to demonstrate the potential use of lower cost additives to produce solid electrolyte for oxygen sensors and fuel cell applications. The powders for the additive production were synthesized by the controlled precipitation method. After synthesis, the powders were de-agglomerated using mechanical grinding and mixed to commercial zirconia to produce the compositions ZrO2:3% Mol Y2O3:ƞ % Mol Re2O3 (ƞ=3,4,5,6), followed by uniaxial press and sintering at 1500 0C in two hours. The obtained sintered densities were above 96% of theoretical. X-Ray diffractometric analysis and Rietweld refinement demonstrated the stabilization of cubic and tetragonal phases for all samples with yttrium rich rare earth concentrate additives. Finally the electric behavior of the evaluated samples was carried out with complex impedance spectroscopy, showing conductivity improvement for samples with the chosen additive. At 500 0C the sample A-9% had a conductivity of 1,11E-3Ω-1.cm-1, well above of the sample without additive with conductivity 5,88E-4Ω1.cm-1, indicative that use of yttrium rich rare earth concentrate as additive increases considerably the ionic conductivity of comercial zirconium oxide. Key words: rare earth concentrate, controlled precipitation, ionic conductivity