Sintering electrolytes

All three layers, namely porous anode, electrolyte, and cathode, were manufactured from agglomerated ceramic powder ZxOi + 8 mol.% Y2O3 with a crystallite size from 10 to 20 nm. The anode and cathode materials were doped with 50 wt.% nickel oxide and 50 wt.% lanthanum manganate, respectively. Taking into account that the sintered electrolyte material should be gas-tight... 

It was found that the layer adjoining performance was always unsatisfactory at adpressing either electrolyte onto sintered anode or cathode onto sintered electrolyte. It was caused probably by high hardness of the sintered ceramics preventing good adhesion of adpressed powder particles. 

Satisfactory results were obtained by adpressing an electrolyte layer onto a pre-compacted anode layer or at slip painting the powder cathode onto a partially sintered electrolyte. A flowchart of the developed process for manufacturing ceramic membranes using the CIP procedure is presented in Fig. 1. 

Figure 13.3 TEM micrograph of sintered electrolyte material with fluorite structure. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. [1].)...

Fig. 6 Comparison between calculated and measured curvature of a thick sintering electrolyte film on a Kerafol 3YSZ substrate and at constant heating rate of l C/min.

Electrolytic Capacitors. Tantalum, because of its high melting point of 2850°C, is produced as a metal powder. As such, it is molded, sintered, and worked to wire and fod, and used to budd certain types of tantalum capacitors (51). Other capacitors are made by compacting and sintering the tantalum powder. 

The matte can be treated in different ways, depending on the copper content and on the desired product. In some cases, the copper content of the Bessemer matte is low enough to allow the material to be cast directly into sulfide anodes for electrolytic refining. Usually it is necessary first to separate the nickel and copper sulfides. The copper—nickel matte is cooled slowly for ca 4 d to faciUtate grain growth of mineral crystals of copper sulfide, nickel—sulfide, and a nickel—copper alloy. This matte is pulverized, the nickel and copper sulfides isolated by flotation, and the alloy extracted magnetically and refined electrolyticaHy. The nickel sulfide is cast into anodes for electrolysis or, more commonly, is roasted to nickel oxide and further reduced to metal for refining by electrolysis or by the carbonyl method. Alternatively, the nickel sulfide may be roasted to provide a nickel oxide sinter that is suitable for direct use by the steel industry. 

Anodic Oxidation. The abiUty of tantalum to support a stable, insulating anodic oxide film accounts for the majority of tantalum powder usage (see Thin films). The film is produced or formed by making the metal, usually as a sintered porous pellet, the anode in an electrochemical cell. The electrolyte is most often a dilute aqueous solution of phosphoric acid, although high voltage appHcations often require substitution of some of the water with more aprotic solvents like ethylene glycol or Carbowax (49). The electrolyte temperature is between 60 and 90°C. 

Eor the negative electrolyte, cadmium nitrate solution (density 1.8 g/mL) is used in the procedure described above. Because a small (3 —4 g/L) amount of free nitric acid is desirable in the impregnation solution, the addition of a corrosion inhibitor prevents excessive contamination of the solution with nickel from the sintered mass (see Corrosion and corrosion inhibitorsCorrosion and corrosion control). In most appHcations for sintered nickel electrodes the optimum positive electrode performance is achieved when one-third to one-half of the pore volume is filled with active material. The negative electrode optimum has one-half of its pore volume filled with active material. 

Cells consist of porous sintered silver electrodes and high rate iron electrodes. The latter are enclosed with a seven-layered, controUed-porosity polypropylene bag which serves as the separator. The electrolyte contains 30% KOH and 1.5% LiOH. 

Standard two-compartment H cell. The catholyte consisted of 3.25 M nitric acid and was separated by a medium-porosity sintered glass frit. Experiments were also carried out to determine if surface oxidation of hydrocarbon polymers could be obtained in an electrolyte consisting only of nitric acid. 

Unlike the cells above, which are all primary cells, this is a secondary (i.e. rechargeable) cell, and the two poles are composed in the uncharged condition of nickel and cadmium hydroxides respectively. These are each supported on microporous nickel, made by a sintering process, and separated by an absorbent impregnated with electrolyte. The charging reactions are ... 

Molten Carbonate -650 Some fuel flexibility High-grade waste heat Fragile electrolyte matrix Electrode sintering Distribute power Utilities... 

Zinc is electrodeposited from the sodium zincate electrolyte during charge. As in the zinc/bromine battery, two separate electrolytes loops ("posilyte" and "nega-lyte") are required. The only difference is the quality of the separator The zinc/ bromine system works with a microporous foil made from sintered polymer powder, but the zinc/ferricyanide battery needs a cation exchange membrane in order to obtain acceptable coulombic efficiencies. The occasional transfer of solid sodium ferrocya-nide from the negative to the positive tank, to correct for the slow transport of complex cyanide through the membrane, is proposed [54],... 

The difficulty of obtaining pure / "-material for the electrolyte has been tackled in many production processes worked out in the past. Unless precautions are taken, sintering of a -alumina-derived / "-alumina compositions invariably results in the duplex microstructure and a low-strength ceramic. Therefore a balance has to be struck between conductivity and strength. The problem arises because the conversion from —alumina to / " -alumina is slow... 

The continuous sintering is mainly a zone sintering process in which the electrolyte tube is passed rapidly through the hot zone at about 1700 °C. This hot zone is small (about 60 mm) in zone sintering, no encapsulation devices are employed. The sodium oxide vapor pressure in the furnace is apparently controlled by the tubes themselves. Due to the short residence time in the hot zone, the problem of soda loss on evaporation can be circumvented. A detailed description of / "-alumina sintering is given by Duncan et al. [22]. 

Ni is found in many ores in combination with S, As Sb, the chief sources being the minerals chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pentlandite. Ni ores are of two types, sulfide and oxide, the former accounting for two-thirds of the world s consumption. Sulfide ores are refined by flotation and roasting to sintered Ni oxide, and either sold as such or reduced to metal, which is cast into anodes and refined electrolytically or by the carbonyl (Mond) process. Oxide ores are treated by hydrometallurgjcal refining, eg, leaching with ammonia. Much secondary Ni is recovered from scrap (Refs 6 7) 1... 

As discussed below, the porosity and surface area of the catalyst film is controllable to a large extent by the sintering temperature during catalyst preparation. This, however, affects not only the catalytically active surface area AG but also the length, t, of the three-phase-boundaries between the solid electrolyte, the catalyst film and the gas phase (Fig. 4.7). 

The reference electrode-solid electrolyte interface must also be non-polarizable, so that rapid equilibration is established for the electrocatalytic charge-transfer reaction. Thus it is generally advisable to sinter the counter and reference electrodes at a temperature which is lower than that used for the catalyst film. Porous Pt and Ag films exposed to ambient air have been employed in most previous NEMCA studies.1,19... 

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