Freeze casting of porous Ni-YSZ cermets

Dual-phase porous Ni-YSZ cermets were fabricated via the freeze casting of a ceramic/camphene slurry. After removing the frozen camphene via sublimation at room temperature, the green samples were sintered for 3 h in air at various temperatures, ranging from 1100 to 1350 degrees C, and then reduced in an Ar-5% H-2 atmosphere at 700 degrees C for 3 h. The fabricated Ni-YSZ cermets showed 3-D pore channels formed by the replication of the entangled camphene dendrite network and small pores in the Ni-YSZ walls produced by partial sintering of the NiO-YSZ composite. Furthermore, the fabricated samples were found to possess reasonable electrical conductivities, thus rendering them suitable for use as the basic components of planar solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.