Preparation and Characterization of Doped Ceria Nano Particles by Chemical Precipitation

In this present research work, chemical precipitation technique was employed to synthesize doped ceria nano particles. The precursor materials, such as, cerium nitrate hexahydrate (basic material) and sodium hydroxide (precipitator material) were used to prepare different compositions of phase pure doped ceria (Ce_0.9Gd_0.1O_2-δ, Ce_0.9Y_0.1O_2-δ, Ce_0.8Gd_0.2O_2-δ and Ce_0.8Y_0.2O_2-δ) with an intention to use in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) as electrolytes. The physicochemical properties of the resultant oxides were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, particle size analysis and SEM. The XRD results revealed the formation of well-crystalline cubic fluorite structure in all the doped ceria powders after calcination at 750°C. The SEM observation showed an average grain size of about 50 - 100nm for the optimal doped ceria powder and particle size analysis gave a narrow distribution of particle size. These results suggest that doped ceria can further improve the use of SOFC at low temperatures.