Preparation of Y2O3–ZrO2–CeO2 solid solution by co-precipitation and its electrical property

{(Y 2 O 3 ) 0·08 (ZrO 2 ) 0.92 } 1- x (CeO 2 ) x (0 ≤  x  ≤ 0.6) is synthesized by co-precipitation method. Thermal analysis, phase structure, lattice constant , micro-morphology, elements distribution, density, open porosity and electrical conductivity are measured by TG, DSC , XRD , GSAS, SEM , EDS, Archimedes method and EIS respectively, and the influence of CeO 2 content on the above properties are investigated. TG-DSC results show that the weight loss of the sample is mainly due to the decomposition of the initial powder, forming a solid solution above ~600 °C. XRD results show that {(Y 2 O 3 ) 0·08 (ZrO 2 ) 0.92 } 1- x (CeO 2 ) x (0 ≤  x  ≤ 0.6) is a cubic solid solution, and the lattice parameters and volume increase with the increase of CeO 2 content. SEM results show that YZC is a dense sintered body. Density and open porosity of YZC sample are ~4.5 g cm −3 and ~0.12, respectively. The electrical conductivity results show that the conductivity of {(Y 2 O 3 ) 0·08 (ZrO 2 ) 0.92 } 1- x (CeO 2 ) x (0 ≤  x  ≤ 0.2) is equivalent, and then the conductivity decreases due to defect association with the increase of CeO 2 content.