Crystallographic Characteristics of Grain Boundaries in Dense Yttria‐Stabilized Zirconia

Abstract

Grain‐boundary plane, misorientation angle, grain size, and grain‐boundary energy distributions were quantified using electron backscatter diffraction data for dense polycrystalline yttria‐stabilized zirconia, to understand interfacial crystallography in solid oxide fuel cells. Tape‐cast samples were sintered at 1450°C for 4 h and annealed for at least 100 h between 800°C and 1650°C. Distributions obtained from both three‐dimensional (3D) reconstructions and stereological analyses of 2D sections demonstrated that the (100) boundary planes {(111)} have relative areas larger {smaller} than expected in a random distribution, and that the boundary plane distribution is inversely correlated to the boundary energy distribution.