A preview of this full-text is provided by Wiley.
Content available from International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Received: September Revised: November Accepted: January
DOI: ./ijac.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Influence of drying conditions and plasticizer-to-binder
ratio on the water-based tape casting of
La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ
Kimia Y. Javan Vincenzo M. Sglavo
Department of Industrial Engineering,
University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Correspondence
Kimia Y. Javan, Department of Industrial
Engineering, University of Trento via
Sommarive , Trento (TN), Italy.
Email: kimia.yousefijavan@unitn.it
Funding information
Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di
Rilevante Interesse Nazionale,
Grant/Award Numbers: PRIN,
FCFYHK
Abstract
Tape casting is a flexible technique for manufacturing scalable ceramic sheets.
This study fabricated La.Sr. Co.Fe.O−δ(LSCF) tapes using water-
based tape casting. A high molecular weight plasticizer, polyethylene glycol
, was chosen to balance flexibility and mechanical strength. Adjusting the
plasticizer-to-binder ratio (R-value) and increasing relative humidity during dry-
ing led to crack-free and flawless green tapes of µm. The uniform polymer
matrix improved homogeneity and consistency as well. An applicable suspen-
sion formulation was developed for the water-based fabrication of LSCF tapes
for continuous production.
KEYWORDS
LSCF, plasticizer, water-based tape casting
1 INTRODUCTION
La−xSrxCoyFe−yO−δ(LSCF) is one of the most stud-
ied perovskite materials to be used as a cathode in solid
oxide fuel cells (SOFC) or as oxygen transport membrane
(OTM) in many mass-production industries, due to its
high mixed ionic and electronic conductivity, good cat-
alytic activity, and high stability toward oxidation, even at
low-intermediate temperatures (<◦C).
Tape casting is a cost-effective and widely used indus-
trial process for producing large-scale ceramic layers of
thickness over µm.The tape casting process should
be regulated in terms of slurry preparation, casting con-
ditions, and dryingto attain high-quality tapes with
no defect while also benefitting from homogeneity, ther-
mocompression suitability, and good balance between
mechanical strength and flexibility. These can validate
industrial continuous production.
Fedeli et al.used organics-based tape casting to create
≈ µm thick La.Sr. Co.Fe.O−δ(LSCF) asym-
metric membranes. Similar LSCF membranes were also
examined by Schulze-Kupper et al.andSerraetal.
Some
other researchers, Nie et al.and Liu et al.,suggested
organics-based tape casting to produce graded LSCF
cathodes with a thickness ≤ µm. Although using organic
solvents in tape casting is a common practice in industry
due to their lower latent heat and less energy-intensive
drying, water-based tape casting can not only signifi-
cantly reduce the risks to the environment and human
health but also lower the costs associated with the instal-
lation and disposal of organic waste. First, Middleton
et al. casted very thin tapes of LSCF (– µm) using
water as the solvent in . Fernandez-Gonzalez et al.
fabricated LSCF tapes of % solid loading by water-
based tape casting with the focus on slurry stability and
microstructural evolution at different sintering tempera-
tures. The tapes showed % relative density at ◦C.
In another work, Junior et al. produced LSCF asym-
metric membranes of % solid loading using water as the
solvent. But the biggest issues in the industrialization of
water-based tape casting are constrained rheology, slower
drying, larger binder amount for good cohesion, and slurry
1482 © The American Ceramic Society. Int J Appl Ceram Technol. ;:–.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ijac
