Elemental, Thermal, and Structural Characterization of ZnO Doped 8 mol% Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (8YSZ) Ceramics

8 mol% of Yttrium oxide doped Zirconia (8YSZ) is one of the most explored compositions which give high ionic conductivities and good power output at 1000 °C. Generally, dopant was added to improve the sinterability of 8YSZ ceramics. In this present study, granulated 8YSZ powders with multimodal size was mixed with ZnO (0,1,2,3 wt%) using mortar and pestle. The mixed powder was compacted and sintered at 1550°C for 2 hours. 2 distinct endothermic peaks were observed in DTA plot of all samples. However, samples contain high amount of ZnO had a broader endothermic peak which resulted from the melting of ZnO. Rietveld refinement results indicate that the tetragonal phase appeared as the dominant phase for all doped and undoped samples, while cubic and monoclinic phase as the secondary phase. The monoclinic phase decreased as the amount of ZnO increased.