Microwave-assisted synthesis of gadolinia-doped ceria powders for solid oxide fuel cells

Gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) is an attractive electrolyte material for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) for its high ionic conductivity at low temperature (500–700 8C). A number of different methods are currently used to prepare nano-sized doped-ceria powder. Among the others, precipitation in solution remains the best method to obtain well-dispersed particles of controlled properties. In this work, nanocrystalline Ce1_xGdxO2_d (GDC) particles were produced by polyol microwave assisted method in very mild conditions (170 8C, 2 h, 1 atm). The as-synthesized powder showed good sinterability and ionic conductivity comparable to the ones of the corresponding nanometric commercial GDC.