On the electrical conductivity of YCrO3 porous ceramics

Abstract

Abstract In this work, nanocrystalline yttrium orthochromite (YCrO3) was synthesized via the solution combustion method using metal nitrates and glycine. The resulting powder was used for sintering YCrO3 porous ceramics. The SEM, EDX, PXRD and TMA were used to examine structural and morphological features of both the preceramic powder and the sintered ceramics. The electroconductivity of the obtained porous ceramics was investigated in the temperature range from 25 to 1200 °C. YCrO3 bulk conductivity was found to depend on the microstructure and the pore volume fraction: at temperatures below 400 °C the electrical conductivity was higher than the values for high-density ceramics, while for temperatures above 800 °C the electrical conductivity of the resulting material approaches the values of high-density ceramics (σdc = 1.97·10−2 S/cm at 1000 °C).