Influence of the high-energy milling and sintering route on europium-doped ceria properties

Abstract

Ceramic electrolytes based on ceria have been extensively researched because the possibility of reducing the operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells [1]. The ceria doped with rare earth ions (Tr+3), such as Eu+3, it is predominantly an ionic conductor in various ranges of temperatures and oxygen partial pressures [2]. In this work, morphological and electrical properties of the compound Ce0,9Eu0,1O1,95 synthesized by Pechini method, processed by high energy milling and sintered by two sintering methods (conventional and two-step sintering) were investigated by thermo gravimetric analysis, x-ray diffraction, laser granulometry, scanning electron microscopy, determination of hydrostatic density and spectroscopy impedance. The results showed that the milling step was efficient in powder dispersions improving their sinterability and densification it is also observed that with the route of twostep sintering is possible to obtain dense ceramics without grain growth.