XPS characterisation of ceria-stabilised zirconia doped with iron oxide

The addition of iron oxide on ceria-stabilised zirconia was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS.. Zirconia presents a monoclinic to tetragonal phase transition at 1443 K, which is accompanied by a volume variation of approximately 3–5%, preventing the formation of a dense polycrystalline monoclinic ceramic. Ceria-stabilised tetragonal zirconia presents high toughness and can be applied as a structural material. However, CeO2–ZrO2has low sinterability, so it is important to investigate the effect of sintering dopants, such as iron, copper and manganese ions, which could improve the sinterability and the mechanical properties of the ceramic. In previous studies, it was shown that the addition of 0.3 mol% of Fe2O3 helped in sintering the ceramic, and enhanced the electrical conductivity, although it was not determined if this enhancement was due to ionic or electronic contribution. In this work, we employed XPS to characterise ZrO2qx mol% CeO2q0.3 mol% Fe2O3, xs12 and 20, ceramics sintered at 1450 and 16008C in order to better understand the influence of iron in the stabilisation of the tetragonal phase and electrical conductivity. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.