Cold sintering-assisted densification of GDC electrolytes for SOFC applications

Cold sintering is a novel technique that promotes the densification of ceramics at a much reduced temperature as compared to conventionally sintered ones. With the aid of this technique, gas-tight GDC electrolytes were sintered up to 96% of their theoretical densities at 1100 degrees C, a remarkable 300 degrees C below the conventional sintering temperature. It is one of the rare cases in which the cold sintering process was carried out at room temperature. The activation energy for electrical conduction and OCV values at 600 and 800 degrees C were found to be 0.69 eV and 0.97 and 0.88 V, respectively. The achieved OCV values were slightly higher than the ones produced by the conventional sintering densification process. (C) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.