Interface defect chemistry and effective conductivity in polycrystalline cerium oxide

Polycrystalline cerium oxide exhibits increasing electronic and decreasing ionic conductivity upon reduction of the grain size. In the present study, the origin of this effect was examined. Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and oxygen titration measurements on nanocrystalline cerium oxide revealed a large excess oxygen deficiency associated with the surface. Using a two-phase model for the combined system of the bulk phase in equilibrium with a surface layer, this enhanced oxygen deficiency could be explained by a reduced binding energy of surface oxygen ions in agreement with results from atomistic computer simulations. The model also revealed that this segregation of oxygen vacancies is the origin of an intrinsic space charge potential. Translating this effect to polycrystalline cerium oxide and taking into account the segregation of dopants and the accumulation/depletion of charge carriers, it was possible to model the grain size dependence of electrical conductivity and thermopower of polycrystalline cerium oxide. A straightforward 1-dimensional numerical model and a change from Boltzmann to Fermi-Dirac statistics allowed to calculate the conductivity of heavily doped polycrystalline cerium oxide for grain sizes in the range of 5-10,000 nm and acceptor concentrations up to 20%. Using this approximation, the effect of grain size on mixed ionic/electronic conductivity and the electrolytic domain boundary was investigated.