Ceria based materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Sm and Nd doping.

Ceria materials doping in these materials with aliovalent ions leads to the formation of Oxygen vacancies within the ceria lattice, improving ionic transport properties of doped CeO2-δ compounds. These materials find application in fields such as electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cells and oxygen storage materials. Metallic nanoparticles on the surface of these materials act as catalytic sites for electrochemical reactions. The project aims to systematically study a series of co-doped ceria materials, where the doping will involve always a Lanthanide and a Transition Metal. XAS analysis will be applied to characterize oxidation state and local environment in systems where the Lanthanide dopant will be either Samarium or Neodymium, and the Transition metal will be changed with a metal among Co, Ni, Cu. Considering the consistent overlap of edges, it is needed to probe the K edges for the Lanthanide dopants (Sm,Nd).