New oxygen ion conductors have been prepared by substituting Ga
3+ for Ge
4+ in Nd
4GeO
8, Zn
2+ andMg
2+ for Ga
3+ in Nd
3GaO
6, and Ca
2+ and Sr
2+ for Nd
3+ in Nd
3GaO
6. A combustion technique usingethylenediamine tetraacetic acid has been developed to synthesize these materials at ~900
C, leading topowders with spherical particles of about 100-200 nm. The green pellets obtained through the combustion-synthesized powders could be sintered to ~98% at 1250
C. It was found that Nd
4Ge
1-xGa
xO
8-x/2 areformed up to
x = 0.10, Nd
3Ga
1-xM
xO
6-x/2 (M = Zn, Mg) up to
x = 0.03, and Nd
3(1-x)M'
3xGaO
6-3x/2 upto
x = 0.03 and 0.015 for M' = Ca and Sr, respectively. These relatively small substitution rates inducea significant increase in oxygen ion conductivity (
800C = 0.2 × 10
-2 S cm
-1 for Nd
4Ge
0.9Ga
0.1O
7.95;
800C = 0.5 × 10
-2 and 0.4 × 10
-2 S cm
-1 for Nd
3Ga
0.97M
0.03O
5.985 with M = Zn and Mg, respectively,and
800C = 0.6 × 10
-2 and 0.7 × 10
-2 S cm
-1 for Nd
2.91Ca
0.09GaO
5.955 and Nd
2.955Sr
0.045GaO
5.9775,respectively) with respect to pure Nd
4GeO
8 (
800C = 2.8 × 10
-4 S cm
-1) and pure Nd
3GaO
6 (
800C =2.7 × 10
-4 S cm
-1).