Sinterability of nanopowder Ce_(0.8)Sm_(0.2)O_(1.9) prepared by urea homogeneous precipitation

Sm3+ doped CeO2 powders(SDC) were prepared by homogeneous precipitation method using Sm2O3 and Ce(NO3)3.6H2O as the raw materials and CO(NH2)2 as the precipitant.The evolution behavior of the precursor in the heating process and the properties of the SDC powders were characterized by TG-DTA,XRD,SEM and BET method,respectively.The effects of calcination temperature on the grain size and sinterability of the SDC powders were studied.The results show that the average grain size increases with increasing temperature.The precursor calcined at 700 ℃ is a single cubic fluorite-type structure with nearly spherical shape and weakly aggregated.The grain size of the powder is 15 nm.In addition,the SDC powders have good sinterability in the experiment and the sintered specimens with relative density up to over 95% and average grain size of 0.6 μm can be manufactured at 1 400 ℃ for 2 h under simply processing conditions.