Controlled coprecipitation of amorphous cerium-based carbonates with suitable morphology as precursors of ceramic electrolytes for IT-SOFCs

To be suitable as electrolytes in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC), ceramic precursors have to be characterized by high sintering aptitude for producing fully densified products which are needed for this kind of application. Therefore, synthesis processes able to prepare highly reactive powders with low costs are noteworthy to be highlighted. It has been shown that amorphous coprecipitates based on cerium doped (and codoped) hydrated hydroxycarbonates can lead to synthesized ceramics with such desired characteristics. These materials can be prepared by adopting a simple coprecipitation technique using ammonium carbonate as precipitating agent. As a function of both the molar ratio between carbonate anions and total metallic cations, and the adopted mixing speed, the coprecipitate can be either amorphous, owning a very good morphology, or crystalline, owning worse morphology, packing aptitude, and sinterability. The amorphous powders, upon a mild calcination step, gave rise to the formation of stable solid solutions of fluorite-structured ceria maintaining the same morphology of the starting powders. Such calcined powders are excellent precursors for sintering ceramic electrolytes at low temperatures and with very high electrical conductivity in the intermediate temperature range (i.e., 500–700 °C). Therefore, irrespective of the actual composition of ceria-based systems, by providing an accurate control of both chemical conditions and physical parameters, the coprecipitation in the presence of ammonium carbonate can be considered as one of the most promising synthesis route in terms of cost/effectiveness to prepare excellent ceramic precursors for the next generation of IT-SOFC solid electrolytes.