Investigation of long-term hydrothermal stability of NANO 3YSZ at operation temperatures of SOFCS

The study of hydrothermal degradation of 3 mol% yttria partially stabilized zirconia was carried out on various grain sizes with the target to prove the long term stability of nano sized 3YSZ applied in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC5). Samples with grain sizes lower than 100 nm (nano) and higher than 100 nm (submicron) were produced by uniaxial pressing and slip casting. Tests of their mechanical performance such as hardness, however, showed that the way of processing does not have significant impact to the sintered specimen. Therefore are the samples of either process valuable for hydrothermal ageing experiments, which proved so far a complete resistance against water exposure in an autoclave up to 21 days.