Structural and Dielectric Investigations of Cerium Stabilized Zirconia (Zr1-xCexO2(x=0-0.05)) Nanocrystals Blended by Wet Chemical Method

Abstract

Cerium doped ZrO2 nano crystals (Zr1-xCexO2(x=0-0.05)) have been synthesized by solution combustion method using glycine as a fuel at furnace temperature 400 °C. The obtained samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-Vis-spectroscopy and AC conductivity techniques. The XRD patterns exhibit decrease in crystallinity of the sample with increase in dopant concentration. The crystallite size is found to be 20-30 nm. The particle size is decreasing with Ce3+ concentration. The SEM analysis reveals change of porosity and shape of ZrO2 samples from spherical grain structure at 1 mol% of Ce3+ to irregular flake like structures in shape at 5 mol% of Ce3+. The band gap is decreasing from 4 to 3.3 eV as the doping concentration increases. AC impedance spectroscopy results of the as synthesized Ce doped ZrO2 shows good dielectric properties with a very high dielectric constant. Sample of ZrO2 doped with 5 mol% Ce3+ is found to have high dielectric constant (ɛʹ = 50) and the lowest dielectric constant (ɛʹ = 18) is found for undoped ZrO2 at 10 MHz. The lowest dielectric loss is measured for the sample having 5 mol% cerium doped zirconia.