Blocking effect in high purity nanostructured cubic zirconia ceramics

Electrical properties of grain boundaries, free of any secondary phases, have been investigated in cubic nanostructured zirconia ceramics. Pure 8YSZ powders were synthesised by spray pyrolysis process. These powders were used to perform dense nanostructured ceramics using two compaction techniques: cold isostatic pressing (CIP) and hot uniaxial pressing (HUP) in an oxidising atmosphere. Grain sizes ranging from 25 to 242 nm and relative densities from 93 up to 98% were obtained. Electrical contribution of the bulk and the blocking effect due to grain boundaries were determined by impedance spectroscopy and analysed according to the brick layer model. The additional blocking effect is a decreasing function of the grain size but its magnitude reaches a plateau quite insensitive to the grain size below 100 nm. This indicates that the recorded electrical contribution originates from an intrinsic effect. This can be related to a dominant electrical contribution of space charge layers located at the grain boundaries area of nanoscale grain sizes.