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Microstructure and electrical conductivity of Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95-MgO composite electrolyte

  • Heng Zhang
  • Bin MengEmail author
  • Zhidong Xia
  • Qian Zheng
  • Xinyu Ping
  • Wenke Liang
Original Paper
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Abstract

Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 (GDC)-xMgO (x = 0, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50 mol%) powders were synthesized by sol-gel method and then the corresponding composite ceramics were sintered in air atmosphere at 1500 °C for 5 h. The sintered samples consist of both GDC and MgO phases on the condition of x ≥ 10%, and the MgO grains segregate at the grain boundaries of GDC. As the MgO content rises from 0 to 20%, the average grain size of GDC decreases from 2.15 to 0.41 μm. The introduction of MgO can improve the specific grain boundary electrical conductivity of GDC-xMgO composite ceramics dramatically. The GDC-20%MgO shows the highest specific grain boundary conductivity, which is 1.726 × 10−5 S/cm at 400 °C, 9.16 times higher than that of pure GDC. The variation in the real total conductivity confirms that the formation of GDC/MgO heterogeneous interfaces is beneficial to the enhancement in the electrical conduction properties of GDC-xMgO composite ceramics.

Keywords

GDC-MgO composite ceramics MgO addition Grain boundary Electrical conductivity 
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Notes

Funding information

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Yunnan Ten Thousand Talents Plan Young & Elite Talents Project and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51462018).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Heng Zhang
    • 1
  • Bin Meng
    • 1
    Email author
  • Zhidong Xia
    • 1
  • Qian Zheng
    • 1
  • Xinyu Ping
    • 1
  • Wenke Liang
    • 1
  1. 1.Faculty of Materials Science and EngineeringKunming University of Science and TechnologyKunmingPeople’s Republic of China

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