Effect of grinding time of synthesized gadolinium doped ceria (GDC10) powders on the performance of solid oxide fuel cell

Ceria-based materials are prospective electrolytes for low and intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. In the present work, fully dense CeO2 ceramics doped with 10 mol% gadolinium (Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95) were prepared with a sol–gel method and commercially purchased GDC10 electrolyte powders were processed. Particle sizes of synthesized electrolyte powders were minimized by ball-milling method. Grinding of the samples were performed in different times intervals (12 h, 15 h, 18 h, 20 h, 25 h, 30 h, 35 h, 40 h and 45 h). Then, these powders were prepared to obtain of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Performances of these cells having an active area of 1 cm2 were tested using a fuel cell test station that measured in different temperatures (650 and 700 °C). In the present study, gadolinium doped ceria (GDC10) synthesiszed powders were investigated by using XRD and SEM images. Performance values of synthesized GDC10's in different temperature were compared to by commercial GDC10. Commercial GDC10's performance at 650 °C were tested, and maximum current density of 0.413 W/cm2 and maximum current density of 0.949 A/cm2 were obtained. Commercial GDC10 at 650 °C has better result. However, synthesized GDC10's performance at 700 °C demonstrated better results than commercial GDC10's. The performance tests of samples which are 20 h mill showed that they have the maximum power density of was obtained as 0.480 W/cm2 and maximum current density of as 1.231 A/cm2.