Synthesis of nanocrystalline samarium-doped CeO2 (SDC) powders as a solid electrolyte by using a simple solvothermal route

Samarium-doped CeO2 is a leading electrolyte for applications in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which requires a typical sintering temperature of 1400–1600 °C. In this work, fully dense CeO2 ceramics doped with 10–20 at.% samarium have been fabricated by a simple polyol process. The XRD and SEM results show that a complete solid solution between CeO2 and samarium was obtained at the sintering temperature of 1300 °C. And also the densification temperature is significantly lower than those (1400–1600 °C) reported for the SDC powders processed by modified sol–gel process and hydrothermal treatment. The resultant ceramics show the sizes of ultrafine grain are lower than 1 μm.