1. Evaluation of the Defect Cluster Content in Singly and Doubly Doped Ceria through In Situ High-Pressure X-ray Diffraction
- Author
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Boby Joseph, Maria Maddalena Carnasciali, Marcella Pani, Cristina Artini, and Sara Massardo
- Subjects
Diffraction ,010405 organic chemistry ,Chemistry ,Doping ,Binding energy ,Nucleation ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,0104 chemical sciences ,Ion ,Inorganic Chemistry ,Chemical physics ,X-ray crystallography ,Cluster (physics) ,Ionic conductivity ,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry - Abstract
Defect aggregates in doped ceria play a crucial role in blocking the movement of oxygen vacancies and hence in reducing ionic conductivity. Nevertheless, evaluation of their amount and the correlation between domain size and transport properties is still an open issue. Data derived from a high-pressure X-ray diffraction investigation performed on the Ce1–x(Nd0.74Tm0.26)xO2–x/2 system are employed to develop a novel approach aimed at evaluating the defect aggregate content; the results are critically discussed in comparison to the ones previously obtained from Sm- and Lu-doped ceria. Defect clusters are present even at the lowest considered x value, and their content increases with increasing x and decreasing rare earth ion (RE3+) size; their amount, distribution, and spatial correlation can be interpreted as a complex interplay between the defects’ binding energy, nucleation rate, and growth rate. The synoptic analysis of data derived from all of the considered systems also suggests that the detection limit of the defects by X-ray diffraction is correlated to the defect size rather than to their amount, and that the vacancies’ flow through the lattice is hindered by defects irrespective of their size and association degree., A novel approach to the treatment of high-pressure X-ray diffraction data is applied to several rare earth-doped ceria systems with the aim of providing an evaluation of the amount of defect aggregates and of the composition of the CeO2-based solid solution. By this method, it is possible to effectively correlate the structural properties and ionic conductivity of the studied material.
- Published
- 2021
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