The scope of the PhD project falls into the research area of alternative energy sources, namely high temperature fuel cells. Those are often based on lanthanide of d-element refractory oxides with ability to conduct oxygen anions at elevated temperature. Two important materials in this group are yttrium doped ZrO2 or gadolinium doped CeO2, e.g. see Inaba et al., Solid State Ionics 83 (1996) 1-16, both can be referred as refractory ceramics, which are often hard to compact and sinter into dense bodies. A newly developed technique called Field Assisted Sintering (FAST) can overcome the difficulties during densification of above mentioned powders. This processing technique applies electric field during sintering of green pellets, which increases the efficiency and lowers mainly the temperature necessary for production of dense compacts, see Figure bellow.
The PhD project consist of three main tasks. Firstly, the applicant will synthesize and characterise nanocrystalline refractory oxides based on oxygen conductors. Then, those powders will be tested in FAST processing. In later stage of the work all successive products will be characterised by related physical methods.
Deadline is closedChemistry: Synthesis, processing and properties of high temperature ceramic oxygen conductors
