The Effect of Tartaric and Citric Acid as a Complexing Agent on Defect Structure and Conductivity of Copper Samarium Co-doped Ceria Prepared by a Sol-Gel Auto-Combustion Method

Copper samarium co-doped ceria (CSDC) (Cu0.01Sm0.19Ce0.80O2−δ) nanoparticles were synthesized via a sol-gel auto-combustion of metal nitrates without a complexing agent (DI) and with tartaric acid (TA) or citric acid (CA). The solid oxide formation of CSDC/DI corresponds to the endothermic stage, whereas that of CSDC/TA and CSDC/CA matches the exothermic stage caused by the decomposition of the metal cross-linking and carbon combustion. The cross-linking occurs more extensively in the CA case as more heat is released in CA than in the TA route. The as-synthesized morphology of CSDC/DI reveals both layered structures and small agglomerated particles, whereas CSDC/TA and CSDC/CA show dense xerogel and porous xerogel, respectively. The cubic fluorite structure for calcined CSDCs was confirmed by XRD. From Raman analysis, calcined CSDC/CA has the lowest amount of copper segregation and the highest relative total oxygen vacancy concentration [ ]total, whereas calcined CSDC/DI has the highest amount of copper segregation and the lowest [ ]total. For all samples, copper segregation promotes densification, albeit to varying degrees. The relative densities of CSDC/DI, CSDC/TA, and CSDC/CA pellets are 82.8 ± 2.4%, 95.5 ± 1.8%, and 97.8 ± 0.9%, respectively. The sintered CSDC/DI has the lowest density because some copper segregates and liquid copper in interparticle spaces could evaporate earlier than samples containing a complexing agent, whereas sintered CSDC/CA has the highest density because Cu could slowly diffuse from the Cu-Sm-Ce solid solution to grain boundary regions and then precipitate as CuO. The specific grain boundary conductivity is predominantly influenced by CuO along grain boundaries, which reduces specific grain boundary conductivity and increases the enthalpy of association (ΔHa) at 250–350°C; however, it rarely impacts total grain boundary conductivity at temperatures higher than 400°C. CSDC/CA has slightly higher total conductivity than CSDC/TA despite having more CuO segregation because it has higher density and .