Electrical conductivity and grain boundary composition of Gd-doped and Gd/Pr co-doped ceria

Published

April 1, 2015

Author(s)

William J. Bowman, Jiangtao Zhu, Renu Sharma, Peter A. Crozier

Abstract

We characterize electrical conductivity, microstructure, nano-scale grain boundary structure and chemistry of ceria electrolytes with nominal compositions of Gd0.2Ce0.8O2-δ (GDC) and Gd0.11Pr0.04Ce0.85O2-δ (GPDC). The electrolytes are fabricated using mixed oxide nanopowders synthesized by spray drying. AC impedance spectroscopy was performed from 150 °C to 700 °C in air to determine grain-interior electrical conductivity. Grain-boundary conductivity was determined below 300 °C. The grain-interior conductivity of the GPDC was higher than that of GDC by as much as 10 times, depending on the temperature. The GPDC specific grain-boundary conductivity was measured to be approximately 100 times higher than that of GDC. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) confirmed the grain-to-grain compositional uniformity of both materials following heat treatments. Grain boundaries were free of glassy intergranular phases; dopant concentration and Ce oxidation state were found to vary significantly near grain boundaries. Boundary core composition was estimated from STEM EELS to be Gd0.62Ce0.38O2-δ, and Gd0.29Pr0.16Ce0.55O2-δ in GDC and GPDC, respectively. Pr segregation to grain boundaries in the GPDC is hypothesized to enhance conductivity by both decreasing oxygen vacancy migration energy, and inducing mixed ionic-electronic conductivity in the near-boundary region.

Citation

Solid State Ionics

Volume

272

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssi.2014.12.006

Local Download

Keywords

Doped ceria, Electrical conductivity, Spray drying, Impedance spectroscopy, Scanning transmission electron microscopy, Electron-energy loss spectroscopy

Citation

Bowman, W. , Zhu, J. , Sharma, R. and Crozier, P. (2015), Electrical conductivity and grain boundary composition of Gd-doped and Gd/Pr co-doped ceria, Solid State Ionics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssi.2014.12.006, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=916107 (Accessed October 9, 2025)