CHARACTERIZATION AND SYNTHESIS OF SAMARIUM-DOPED CERIA SOLID SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Doped ceria is considered as the most promising high-conducting electrolyte, alternative to the commercially used yttria-stabilized zirconia. The ceria with fluorite type structure is very tolerant to dissolution of lower valence metal ions. In this study, fully dense CeO2 ceramics doped with 10 mol % Sm (Sm0.1Ce0.9O1.95, SDC) were successfully synthesized by a simple Pechini method. X-ray diffraction analysis showed fine grained powders with single phase and cubic fluorite structure. A range of techniques including thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA/DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were carried out to characterize the SDC powders.