The direct utilisation of natural gas for power generation using clean energy technologies has attracted great attention. Therefore, fuel cell is best choice for conversion of hydrocarbon for power generation. But in the presence of Ni-based anodes is still challenging as it causes severe deposition of carbon (coke). An excellent doping matrix is ceria (CeO2), which can lose oxygen without altering its structure. In this study, NixCe1-xO2-δ, where x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 or 0.8, is prepared by a sol-gel technique. The XRD results confirm the cubic structure of the prepared samples. The SEM analysis shows the porous and inhomogeneous nature of the particles with calculated sizes from 22.83 to 119 nm. The FTIR verifies the presence of nitrates in all the prepared anodes. UV-Vis spectroscopy demonstrates that the band gap and optical constants decrease with increasing Ni content up to x = 0.6. The thermodynamic parameters of Ni oxidation and carbon formation are employed to study the reforming of natural gas in a SOFC system. Among the four samples, Ni0.6Ce0.4O2-δ possesses the highest electronic conductivity (5.97 S/cm) at 650 C and low activation energy of 0.120 eV, which indicates good catalytic activity with enhanced electrochemical performance for the SOFC. A maximum power density of 386 mW cm-2 is obtained at 600 °C, which is comparable to previous reported electrodes. Thus, Ni-doped ceria can be considered as a potential anode material for SOFCs due to their efficient and excellent catalytic properties, ease in redox-based reactions, and improved resistance against the formation of coke.

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