Synthesis and characterization of CeO2-doped ZnO

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis, crystal structure and electrical properties of CeO2-doped ZnO powders.X-ray diffraction shows that majority of the samples are monophase and have the cubic structure.The solubility limit of Ce 4+ ions in ZnO lattice was found to be 3 mol% (after heating at 1000 • C), whereby the impurity phase was determined to be the cubic-CeO2.For monophase CeO2-doped ZnO samples synthesized at 1000 • C, the lattice parameters a and c increased with increasing CeO2 concentration.The electrical conductivity of undoped ZnO and all monophase samples was measured using the four-probe method.The electrical conductivity was increased with both temperature and CeO2 doping.Also, the activation energy of all the monophase samples was calculated.Type of the activation energy of all the monophase samples is thermal.The values were found to be in the range from 0.458 to 0.302 eV for the low-temperature region and from 0.989 to 1.132 eV for the high-temperature region.K e y w o r d s : zinc oxide, doping zinc oxide, electrical conductivity, solid state method