Electrochemical synthesis and characterization of Gadolinia-Doped Ceria thin films

Raman spectra and the corresponding microstructures observed by SEM for Gd and Ce-based films. Cerium oxide based materials are versatile compounds in terms of properties and applications. This work analyses the production of thin layers, of less than 2μm thick of Gd-doped ceria (GDC) solid solution for high temperature electrochemical applications such as fuel cells and electrolyser cells. We focused on the synthesis of the deposit by cathodic electrodeposition by means of one unique chemical electrolytic bath to produce the doped compound. The resulting deposit is a single phase compound that presents a cubic structure being the expected composition Ce0.77Gd0.23O2-δ. The feasibility of a “one step deposition” (i.e. from one common solution bath) for Gd-doped ceria was demonstrated in the conditions presented in this paper. The presented results deal with the electrodeposition and the microstructural features of the produced materials, which were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) coupled to EDX and Raman spectroscopy.