CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The energy consumption of modern societies demands more efficient ways to generate energy. In this context, fuel cells are a good option for efficient storage of those energies and therefore improve the use of new energy sources. Among others, the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells or SOFCs have attracted the attention of technology developers because of its versatility. The materials used for the manufacture of the cathodes in these cells require high sintering temperatures which cause significant changes in the microstructure of the cathode and in the cathode-electrolyte interface. These changes determine the device performance so the study and characterization of the microstructure in relation with manufacturing conditions should lead to an improvement in the operation of the SOFCs. The parameters to be optimized in the microstructure of these materials include: volume fraction of phases, connectivity, triple phase boundary length, porosity, tortuousness, distribution of grain boundary character, grain size and distribution of misorientations among others parametersThe main goal of this work is to evaluate the microstructure and microtexture developed in tapes made of Lanthanum Strontium Manganite ((La0.85 Sr0.15) 0.98MnO3 or LSM), Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and the LSM / YSZ system, being all them manufactured by tape casting techniques. and sintered at different temperatures between 1200 ° C and 1450 ° C. The tape casting process is a simple process. This advantage positioned these materials in an important place in the advanced ceramics market. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used to characterize the tapes.. EBSD results are analyzed using standard techniques of orientational imaging microscopy.