Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026
06:44
Tuning Oxide Properties by Oxygen Vacancy Control During Growth and Annealing
Published on: June 9, 2023
Disordered vacancy-isolated Ce-Gd-O clusters achieve exceptional low-temperature oxygen-ion conductivity for fuel
Shengli Pang1,2, Xudong He1, Hao Lou1
1School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Jiangsu, China.
Science Advances
|July 8, 2026
Summary
Novel cerium-gadolinium-oxygen clusters achieve high oxygen-ion conductivity at low temperatures. These disordered clusters enable efficient solid oxide fuel cells, advancing clean energy technologies.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Clean Energy
Background:
- Oxygen-ion conductors are crucial for clean energy applications.
- Conventional conductors need high temperatures, increasing costs and limiting durability.
- A key challenge is improving conductivity at lower operating temperatures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create and characterize novel cerium-gadolinium-oxygen (Ce-Gd-O) clusters.
- To investigate their ion transport properties.
- To evaluate their performance as a cathode additive in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).
Main Methods:
- Thermal-shock exfoliation of fluorite Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 to form Ce-Gd-O clusters.
- Structural and ion transport analysis of the disordered clusters.
- Integration as a cathode additive in SOFCs to assess power density and durability.
Main Results:
- Disordered Ce-Gd-O clusters exhibit percolative oxygen-ion pathways without long-range order.
- Exceptional conductivity of 2.14 ± 0.09 S/cm at 400°C, over 320-fold higher than conventional conductors.
- Tripled peak power density in SOFCs (2.87 ± 0.04 W/cm2 at 750°C) and reversed degradation.
Conclusions:
- High oxygen-ion conductivity can be achieved without long-range order.
- Ce-Gd-O clusters offer a new pathway for efficient low-temperature ionic conduction.
- These clusters are promising enablers for advanced energy technologies like SOFCs.
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