Tailoring Samaria Doped Ceria for IT-SOFC

摘要

Rare earth doped cerias have emerged as promising materials for a wide range of applications such as catalysts, electrochemical membranes, etc. During the last few years, a vast number of studies have focused their attention on the interesting properties of these materials [1, 2], e.g. elevated conductivity at intermediate temperatures (500-700°C), which turn them into potential electrolytes for IT-SOFCs. Their implementation would trigger off new advances in the development of fuel cell stacks with more affordable components [3]. Many efforts have been dedicated to investigate the sintering and electrochemical behaviour of nanostructured doped ceria [4]. However, the high temperatures involved in the cofiring processes (typically 1300°C and higher) may induce grain coarsening at the micrometric scale, which in turn would cause poorer performances compared to fine-grain dense ceramics. Thus, a further insight and consequent optimisation of the microstructure of the sintered doped ceria is of maximum interest.