La3+-doped CeO2 system: Negating the myths with a tailor-made ceramic

摘要

In spite of promising functional properties, La2Ce2O7 finds limited mention in the research community due to various materials issues (e.g., phase stability and retention, sinterability, modest thermal conductivity etc.). We show when these issues are suitably taken cared off, the same system depicts a total conductivity of 10.8 x 10(-2) S/cm, the highest till date for any La3+-doped CeO2 matrix. Our achievement of such property was assisted by a near-theoretical density(similar to 98%), highly textured (Lotgering factor similar to 0.9) ceramic via conventional sintering; the texturing did not involve any extra/additional processing operations (e.g., templated grain growth, tape casting, hot forging etc.). (C) 2018 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.