Methods of synthesis and formation of a high dense ceramic prepared from barium cerate and zirconate, which is applied as electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells, are considered in the present work. The main attention is devoted to the relatively new strategy of solid state reactive sintering method, which consists in the introduction of small amounts of sintering additives to initial precur sors. Analysis of published data on the effect of sintering additives on the physicochemical and trans port properties of proton conducting electrolytes is carried out. Fig. 4. The microstructure of (a) BaCe 0.9 Gd 0.1 O 3 -δ ceramic samples sintered at 1600°С for 3 h and (b) BaCe 0.89 Gd 0.1 Cu 0.01 O 3 -δ sintered at 1450°С for 3 h [69].