Porous yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics with ultra-low thermal conductivity. Part II: temperature dependence of thermophysical properties

This study describes the experimental results of thermal diffusivity, specific heat at constant pressure, and thermal conductivity of porous 8 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) ceramics in a temperature range from room temperature to 1,400 °C. It is a follow-up study of the earlier report titled by “Porous YSZ ceramics with ultra-low thermal conductivity”, which focused on the room-temperature thermal conductivity. The thermal diffusivity of porous YSZ ceramics decreased with the increase of the measurement temperature up to 600–1,000 °C, followed by an increasing trend with increasing temperature. The specific heat did not exhibit any significant dependence on sintering temperature and agreed with literature data. The thermal conductivity of the porous YSZ ceramics showed an insensitive tendency of change with measurement temperature. The thermal conductivity fell in groups by the sintering temperature level. This investigation also discussed an appropriate sintering temperature of porous YSZ ceramics, which had both low thermal conductivity and high strength required by the practical service.