Conductivity of Porous Ni / ZrO2 ‐ Y 2 O 3 Cermets

The conductivity of porous cermets at 1000°C was determined as a function of Ni content between 15 and 50 volume percent (v/o) of total solids for two different zirconia particle sizes (23 and 47 m 2 /g). Below Ni contents of 30 v/o, ionic conduction through the zirconia phase dominated. At 30 v/o Ni, a greater than three order of magnitude increase in the conductivity was observed, corresponding to a change in mechanism to electronic conduction through the Ni phase. The conductivity of cermets made with a Ni content greater than 30 v/o Ni was found to decrease with increasing temperature between 700° and 1000°C. While the conductivity of the cermets with the larger particle size zirconia was higher by more than a factor of four, all the samples studied had the same activation energy, . The increase in conductivity with zirconia particle size is attributed to improved Ni particle‐to‐particle contact, resulting from the Ni phase being able to cover more completely the surface of the zirconia matrix where it resides.