Highly sinterable gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) powders are prepared by carbonate coprecipitation and applied to the GDC interlayer in Ni-YSZ (yttria stabilized zirconia)-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell in order to prevent the reaction between YSZ electrolyte and LSCF (La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-delta) cathode materials. The formation of highly resistive phase at the YSZ/LSCF interface was effectively blocked by the low-temperature densification of GDC interlayer using carbonate-derived active GDC powders and the suppression of Sr diffusion toward YSZ electrolyte via GDC interlayer by tuning the heat-treatment temperature for cathode fabrication. The power density of the cell with the configuration of Ni-YSZ/YSZ/GDC/LSCF-GDC/LSCF was as high as 906 mW cm(-2), which was 2.0 times higher than that (455 mW cm(-2)) of the cell with the configuration of Ni-YSZ/ YSZ/LSM(La0.8Sr0.2MnO3-delta)-YSZ/LSM at 750 degrees C. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.