Fabrication of YSZ thin films from suspension by electrostatic spray deposition

This work describes a novel fabrication technique to prepare yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films by electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) from suspension. A detailed discussion on the formulation of colloidally stable suspension to prepare dense and uniform YSZ thin films is presented in this study. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used to analyze the structure and morphology of the YSZ thin films. The results show that a mixture of acetylacetone and ethanol in a ratio of 1:1 by volume is an effective suspension medium for YSZ fine particles to produce colloidally stable suspension, and the YSZ thin films with uniform in thickness about 2 μm and densely packed can be obtained by ESD from the suspension.