The oxide films formed on etched aluminum foils play an important role as dielectric layers in aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Y2O3-doped ZrO2 (YZ) films were coated on the etched aluminum foils by sol-gel dip coating, and the electrical properties of YZ-coated Al foils were characterized. YZ films annealed at 450 oC were crystallized into a cubic phase, and as the Y2O3 doping content increased, the unit cell of ZrO2 expanded and the grain size decreased. The etch pits of Al foils were filled by YZ sol when it dried at atmospheric pressure after repeating for several times, but this step could essentially be avoided when being dried in a vacuum. YZ-coated foils indicated that the specific capacitance and dissipation factor were 2-2.5 μF/cm2 and 2-4 at 1 kHz, respectively, and the leakage current and withstanding voltage of films approximately 200 nm thick were 5 × 10−4A at 21 V and 22 V, respectively. After being anodized at 500 V, the foils exhibited a specific capacitance and dissipation factor of 0.6-0.7 μF/cm2 and 0.1-0.2, respectively, at 1 kHz, while the leakage current and withstanding voltage were 2 × 10−4 - 3 × 10−5 A at 400 V and 420-450 V, respectively. This suggests that YZ film is a promising dielectric that can be used in high voltage Al electrolytic capacitors.

The preparation of Y2O3-doped ZrO2 nanoparticles in Igepal CO-520/cyclohexane reverse micelle solutions is studied here. In this work, we synthesized nanosized Y2O3-doped ZrO2 powders in a reverse micelle process using aqueous ammonia as the precipitant. In this way, a hydroxide precursor was obtained from nitrate solutions dispersed in the nanosized aqueous domains of a microemulsion consisting of cyclohexane as the oil phase, with poly (oxyethylene) nonylphenylether (Igepal CO-520) as the non-ionic surfactant. The synthesized and calcined powders were characterized by thermogravimetrydifferential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The crystallite size was found to nearly identical with an increase in the water-to-surfactant (R) molar ratio. A FTIR analysis was carried to monitor the elimination of residual oil and surfactant phases from the microemulsion-derived precursor and the calcined powder. The average particle size and distribution of the synthesized Y2O3-doped ZrO2 were below 5 nm and narrow, respectively. The TG-DTA analysis showed that the phase of the Y2O3-doped ZrO2 nanoparticles changes from the monoclinic phase to the tetragonal phase at temperatures close to 530˚C. The phase of the synthesized Y2O3-doped ZrO2 when heated to 600˚C was tetragonal ZrO2.