Sol-gel Fabrication of Novel Electrolytes Based on Neodymium Doped Ceria for Application in Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Abstract

Neodymium doped ceria “Ce1-xNdxO2-x/2” (where x was kept 0.2 & 0.25) powders were synthesized by sol-gel technique using Cerium nitrate hexahydrate and Neodymium nitrate hexahydrate as precursors. Sintering of the powdered samples were done at 1300°C and then characterized by using X-ray diffraction, optical microscope and an impedance spectroscopy. Sintering effects were studied by using optical microscope and found that particle size was increased from 6.5μm to 10.8μm. The crystallite size of 35.9nm was obtained and the value of ionic conductivity at room temperature was found to be 1.19×10-7 Scm-1.