Thermally stable, ordered mesoporous thin films of 8 mol % yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) were prepared by solution-phase coassembly of chloride salt precursors with an amphiphilic diblock copolymer using an evaporation-induced self-assembly process. The resulting material is of high quality and exhibits a well-defined three-dimensional network of pores averaging 24 nm in diameter after annealing at 600 °C for several hours. The wall structure is polycrystalline, with grains in the size range of 7 to 10 nm. Using impedance spectroscopy, the total electrical conductivity was measured between 200 and 500 °C under ambient atmosphere as well as in dry atmosphere for oxygen partial pressures ranging from 1 to 10(-4) bar. Similar to bulk YSZ, a constant ionic conductivity is observed over the whole oxygen partial pressure range investigated. In dry atmosphere, the sol-gel derived films have a much higher conductivity, with different activation energies for low and high temperatures. Overall, the results indicate a strong influence of the surface on the transport properties in cubic fluorite-type YSZ with high surface-to-volume ratio. A qualitative defect model which includes surface effects (annihilation of oxygen vacancies as a result of water adsorption) is proposed to explain the behavior and sensitivity of the conductivity to variations in the surrounding atmosphere.
Keywords: mesoporous; nanoionics; proton conductivity; self-assembly; surface effects; yttria-stabilized zirconia.