Sintering behavior of cobalt oxide doped ceria powders of different particle sizes

The effect of cobalt oxide as sintering aid for CeO2 and Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 powders was studied as a function of initial powder particle size. The sintering effect of cobalt oxide, measured as the difference in temperature of maximum shrinkage rate between undoped and 1 cat% cobalt oxide doped powders, decreased with initial particle size. Almost no effect was found for the smallest particle sizes investigated (d < 10 nm) whereas the maximum shrinkage rate temperature decreases by more than 200 degrees C for particles d > 100 nm. For the smaller particles, only doping of much higher concentration produces significant decreases in the temperature of maximum shrinkage rate. This observation suggests that the effectiveness of sintering depends on the specific surface area of the starting powder and points at the decisive role of the doping method used. Dense microstructures with average grain sizes smaller than 100 nm are obtained by doping very fine powders with cobalt oxide.