We have applied the bond valence method to cerium oxides to determine the oxidation states of the Ce ion at the various site symmetries of the crystals. The crystals studied include cerium dioxide and the two sesquioxides along with some selected intermediate phases which are crystallographically well characterized. Our results indicate that cerium dioxide has a mixed-valence ground state with an f-electron population on the Ce site of 0.27 while both the A- and C-sesquioxides have a nearly pure f1 configuration. The Ce sites in most of the intermediate oxides have nonintegral valences. Furthermore, many of these valences are different from the values predicted from a naive consideration of the stoichiometric valence of the compound.
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