Effects of Gd2O3 and SrO co-dopants on microstructural features, ionic conductivities and oxygen vacancy concentrations of two modified CeO2 electrolytes (Ce0.8Gd(0.2-x)Sr(x)O(1.9-0.5)x, and Ce0.8-xGd0.2SrxO1.9-x) are investigated using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and AC impedance spectroscopy. Lattice parameters of co-doped CeO2 specimens are observed to linearly increase with an increase of co-dopants amount, due to larger radius of Sr2+. Grain size of Ce0.8-xGd0.2Sr(x)O(1.9-x) ,Gd0.2SrxO1.9 is significantly larger than that of Ce0.8Gd0.2SrO1.9-0.5x at the same Sr2+ concentration, because Ce0.8-xGd0.2Srx1.9-x, posseises more oxygen vacancy to migrate oxygen ions, defects and impurities easily, based upon calculation of oxygen vacancy amount. Small addition of SrO into 20 mol% Gd2O3 doped CeO2 (Ce0.8-xGd0.2SrxO1.9-x) is effective in enhancing of ionic conductivity, but a sudden decreasing of conductivity with Sr2+ heavy-doping is found. The relationship among co-dopant concentration, oxygen vacancy radius, average binding energy and ionic conductivity in two different co-doped CeO2 systems are discussed in this work. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.