V.V. Plashnitsa et al. / Electrochimica Acta 55 (2010) 6941–6945
6945
amorphous NiO precursor, which was stored for about six months
under ambient conditions (room temperature, about 50% relative
The results of reproducibility tests and a comparison of the
fabricated sensor with one using an NiO-SE fabricated from
the commercially available powder revealed the advantages
of mechanochemical pretreatment. Two sensors attached with
◦
humidity) prior to calcination at 1100 C. The response transients to
◦
NO2 at 800 C under the wet condition for Sensor 2 are also shown
◦
in Fig. 6 (dashed-dotted line). It is seen that both sensors were
observed to exhibit reproducible behavior. The difference between
NO2 sensitivities in the range of 100–400 ppm NO2 was found to
be less than 10%. The slight decrease of NO2 sensitivity for Sen-
sor 2 could be attributed to the partial agglomeration of highly
reactive NiO nano-particles during the storage of the precursor
under ambient conditions for the specified period. Nevertheless,
the obtained results are valuable and indicate the utility of the
ball-milling approach in improving the reproducibility of the gas-
sensing characteristics of YSZ-based sensors. More importantly,
good reproducibility of the obtained results for Sensors 1 and 2
is consistent with a reproducible morphology for the fabricated
NiO-SEs as a whole and the stability of the constructed NiO-SE/YSZ
interfaces in particular. This stability could be ascribed to the rela-
tionship between the sintering and melting temperatures for the
nano-structured NiO. Provided that, in the present case, the melting
1100 C-sintered NiO-SEs fabricated within 6 months using the
same mechanochemically obtained NiO precursor showed almost
the same level of NO2 sensitivity even at high operating tempera-
◦
ture. Provided that all kinetic processes are fast enough at 800 C,
the good reproducibility of the NO -sensing characteristics seems
2
to be due to similar catalytic activities for both the anodic and
cathodic electrochemical reactions. Thus, good repeatability of the
electrochemical properties might be attributed to the construc-
tion of morphologically repeatable and stable NiO-SEs as a result
of applying a highly homogeneous nano-structured NiO precursor
and of the proximity between the sintering and melting tempera-
tures.
Acknowledgement
This work was partially supported by the Kyushu University
Global-COE Program on “Novel Carbon Resource Sciences”.
◦
point of the nano-NiO is close to 1400 C, the sintering temperature
◦
of 1100 C is slightly lower than the melting point. Thus, the prox-
imity of the sintering and melting temperatures seems to bring
about the formation of stable and morphologically repeatable NiO
layers.
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◦
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◦
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