Nickel sheets from suspensions of the metallic powders in water

Abstract

Materials designs evolving nickel sheets combined with ceramics has applications in either electrical or structural applications. Examples can be taken from the fabrication of high Jc-HTS (high temperature superconductors) tapes or the high temperature SOFCs where the metallic nickel has been used because of good oxidation resistance and good match with the ceramic components (YBCO and YSZ). On the other hand the same properties of nickel can be employed for thermo-mechanical purposes. The joining of alternate metallic and ceramics tapes permits the fabrication of materials with graceful failure and high work of fracture. Processing of those laminated materials is a critical point as the final reinforcement depends strongly on the distribution of the layers. Colloidal processing techniques have proved to be an accurate method to develop laminated and graded microstructures in both ceramic-ceramic and metal-ceramic materials by a diverse techniques such as slip casting, tape casting, electrophoretic deposition or screen-printing. For any of those processing techniques, the rheology of the slurries is a critical parameter to be controlled in order process suitable samples.