Novel Sol-Gel Method of Co-Doped Cerium Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrolyte

A novel sol gel method has been developed for preparing high purity co-doped cerium gadolinium oxide nanoparticles for solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte. Sodium alginate granules are used to exchange the sodium ion with the metal ions of interest, followed by thermal oxidation to produce the metal oxides. The results indicate that the method produces cubic single phase and homogeneous composition nanoparticles. The simultaneous thermo-gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC) has been used to get insight into the calcination process from ion-exchanged alginate precursor. The mean crystalline size of nanoparticles is less than 10 nm calcined at 500^oC. A higher temperature calcination (700^oC) produces bigger crystalline sizes. The mean crystalline size calculated with XRD Rietveld refinement has excellent agreement with the morphologies observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Hence, this novel sol-gel method is a promising process for scaling up.