XPS characterisation of ceria-stabilised zirconia doped with iron oxide

The addition of iron oxide on ceria-stabilised zirconia was studied by X-ra y photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Zirconia presents a monoclinic to tetra gonal phase transition at 1443 K, which is accompanied by a volume variatio n of approximately 3-5%, preventing the formation of a dense polycrystallin e monoclinic ceramic. Ceria-stabilised tetragonal zirconia presents high to ughness and can be applied as a structural material. However, CeO2-ZrO2 has low sinterability, so it is important to investigate the effect of sinteri ng dopants, such as iron, copper and manganese ions, which could improve th e sinterability and the mechanical properties of the ceramic. In previous s tudies, it was shown that the addition of 0.3 mol% of Fe2O3 helped in sinte ring the ceramic, and enhanced the electrical conductivity, although it was not determined if this enhancement was due to ionic or electronic contribu tion. In this work, we employed XPS to characterise ZrO2 + x mol% CeO2 + 0. 3 mol% Fe2O3, x = 12 and 20, ceramics sintered at 1450 and 1600 degrees C i n order to better understand the influence of iron in the stabilisation of the tetragonal phase and electrical conductivity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.