Two Different Interactions between Oxygen Vacancies and Dopant Cations for Ionic Conductivity in CaO-Doped CeO_2 Electrolyte Materials

摘要

The electrical measurement has demonstrated that conductivity of CaO-doped CeO_2 has higher activation energy for low temperature and lower activation energy for high temperature. A model with two different kinds of defect interactions between oxygen vacancy and doped cations has been used to interpret the phenomenon. Diffusion based on hopping of oxygen ions was assumed as the mechanism of electrical conduction. The analysis indicated that at high temperature free oxygen vacancies are dominant and the activation energy is only for oxygen ion hopping. At low temperature, however, oxygen vacancies associated with dopant calcium ions are dominant for high CaO content and the activation energy is the energy for hopping of an oxygen ion plus half of the association energy between one oxygen vacancy and one calcium ion. For low level doping, both free and associated oxygen vacancies are important.