Engineered co-precipitation chemistry with ammonium carbonate for scalable synthesis and sintering of improved Sm_0.2Ce_0.8O_1.90 and Gd_0.16Pr_0.04Ce_0.8O_1.90 electrolytes for IT-SOFCs

Nanometric powders of doped and co-doped ceria based ceramics with spherical-like morphology and characterized by very low degree of agglomeration, were prepared by using a simple and cheap synthesis route, easily scalable on industrial level, based on an optimized co-precipitation process with ammonium carbonate as precipitating agent. The as-synthesized powders are completely converted to ceria with fluorite structure. The original morphology and the nanometric features are also preserved. Nearly perfect dense products were obtained after sintering at 1300 °C for 3 h, as by SEM and density measurements. Electrochemical measurements proved that they are all suitable as electrolytes for IT-SOFC.