Effect of MoO3 concentration on sintering and electrical properties of SiO2-containing neodymium-doped ceria electrolytes

Abstract: The effects of MoO3 concentration on the sintering and electrical properties of Ce0.8Nd0.2O1.9 + 500 ppm SiO2 (NDCSi) and (Ce0.8Nd0.2O1.9)1 − x (MoO3) x  + 500 ppm SiO2 ( x = 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, NDCSi + 1MoO3, NDCSi + 2MoO3, NDCSi + 3MoO3, NDCSi + 4MoO3, NDCSi + 5MoO3) prepared through a modified sol–gel method were systematically investigated. The structures and ionic conductivities were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and EIS. The results indicated a sharp increase in densification and conductivity for the system of NDCSi containing small amount of MoO3. It shows that NDCSi + 3MoO3 exhibited much higher relative density (RD = 96%), higher conductivity (σ t = 1.25 × 10−2 S cm−1 at 600 °C) and lower activation energy (E a = 0.81 eV) compared with NDCSi and the other MoO3 doped-NDCSi samples. Furthermore, MoO3 could be used as an effective sintering aid and a grain boundary scavenger for NDCSi system. And we obtained the optimal amount of the MoO3 is 3 mol%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]