Effect of the composition and synthesizing approaches on the performance of Ni-15 mol% Sm3+ doped CeO2 (Sm0.15Ce0.85O2-delta, SDC) composite anodes were studied. The results showed that the addition of SDC into Ni significantly improved the performance of Ni anode mainly by reducing the ohmic resistance of the cell and the overpotential at anode/electrolyte interface. The introduction of SDC into Ni created more active sites for H-2 oxidation; however, it also increased the activation energy of the process at the same time. Therefore, the anodic overpotential of Ni-SDC composite electrode was higher than pure Ni at low reaction temperatures (873 K), while lower than that of pure Ni at 1073 K. Further experiments showed that the activities of Ni-SDC composite electrodes showed strong dependency on the synthesizing approaches. The electrodes prepared with impregnation methods exhibited a much higher activity compared with the electrodes prepared with solid-state reaction due to the reduced ohmic resistance. The low ohmic resistance of the cells using Ni-SDC anodes prepared with impregnation method is due to the improved distribution of Ni and SDC in the green powder of anode. An equal distribution of Ni and SDC is essential to minimize the reaction between Ni and strontium and magnesium doped lanthanum gallate (LSGM), and decrease the ohmic resistance. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.