Preparation by different methods and analytical characterization of gadolinium-doped ceria

The present work reports the influence of chemical synthesis on structural, morphological and optical properties of gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) with analytical characterization of synthesized specimens. GDC powders with Gd content of 10, 15 and 20 mol% were synthesized by aqueous sol–gel and sol–gel combustion methods using glycerol as complexing agent and fuel. The phase purity and structural features of obtained powders were evaluated using X-ray diffraction analysis and Raman spectroscopy. These studies confirmed that crystallization of GDC occurs into cubic fluorite-type crystal structure. Morphological features as well as optical properties of GDC powders were determined to be strongly dependent on the synthesis method. To confirm chemical composition of prepared samples, spectrophotometric approach for the determination of Ce and Gd in GDC samples was suggested. Relative standard deviation values for Ce and Gd were in the range of 1.5–4.1 and 2.0–5.6%, respectively. The obtained results demonstrated that the suggested analytical procedure can be successfully used for the analysis of GDC specimens with high accuracy.