3.1. Structural and phase analysis of XRD data
The collected data of XRD spectra for the 3 synthesized series of Mg
x doped Ce
0.8-2xSm
0.2Zr
xO
2-d, x= 0.
05, 0.
1 &0.
15} were analyzed by Rietveld analysis at RT after the final sintering temperature of 1400 °C is appearing in
Figure 2 below with peak indexing showing the single-phase purity. The Rietveld analyses of the XRD patterns of all materials confirm a stable single-phase cubic structure in the F m-3m fluorite type in a space group with nearly similar cell parameter a= 5.4 ⁰A for all compounds.
Due to the indexed peaks with Winx POW and TREOR90 software the existence of sharp peaks like in (111), (200), (220) and (311) is because of well crystalline after the calcination process. Considering that values of observed minus calculated (obs-calc) represents indexed materials in a precise symmetry (cubic) and space group (F m-3m). following that the refinement parameters of all compounds are similar in their lattice in addition to the calculated theoretical density is almost very close in values when calculated using the following equation [
46]:
Where MW
CSZM is the molecular weight of CSZM electrolytes and NA is Avogadro’s number, a representing lattice parameter as listed in
Table 1 below. Rietveld refinement parameters of the CSZM materials showing similar values of lattice parameters as the samarium (Sm) amount is the same in the whole synthesized compounds and due to its ionic radius (0.958 Å, coordination number (CN) = 6) compared to cerium (Ce) (0.87 Å with the same CN) however density increased with increasing Mg doped amount from 5% to 15% due to the lattice parameter increase which directly affects the volume of the synthesized sample. The confirmed structure of the synthesized material after getting XRD patterns is obeying Vegard’s law. It is clear also that the change that happened in the peak shift as shown in Fig 1a was due to the small change of lattice parameters and due to the increase of Mg % dopant results in an increase of tensile strength that mamakes this small shift of the plane towards the lower angle. And this also can be clearly
observed from the lattice parameters and volume of the indexed XRD patterns from the given data in
Table 1 and
confirms this with previous work in the literature [
47].
However, the atomic position of the multi-dopant is almost the same in the 3 compounds and that was due to the stability of the structure with higher densification of Mg doping and when the percentage increased from 5% to 15% porosity increased with grain growth increase at higher sintering temperature of 1400 °C.
Surface morphology and microstructure of the 3 synthesized compounds of electrolyte materials were carefully checked through SEM to show the level of densification at the 5%,10%
, and 15% levels.
Figure 3 shows clear view of the microstructures for CSZM compounds and images are showing that with higher doping of Mg resulted in higher porosity however, the final sintering temperature was 1400 °C. Thereby, the Mg doping
has shown abnormal grain growth due to the thermomechanical treatments that have
adirect effect and significant role in the investigation of the synthesized samples owing to the close dependence of properties upon grain size [
48].
But the grain growth clearly occurred on 5% doping of Mg during the densification [
49] compared to other percentages. 1 μm average grain size for the pellet sintered at 1200 °C, whereas for 1300 1.6 to 2.3 μm and at the final temperature of 1400 °C, the grain size ranged from 2.5 to 3.7 μm, From
Figure 3a,c of the compound Ce
0.7Sm
0.2Zr
0.05Mg
0.05O
1.9. showing some inhomogeneity in grain sizes due to higher sintering temperatures, but the most interesting is getting well compact and dense electrolyte materials compared to the other 2 compounds. Some pores started to occur and with Mg doping increase, abnormal grain growth resulted in some pores being trapped inside the microstructure even with higher sintering
temperatures it is difficult to erase [
50,
51,
52]. The EDX elemental analysis of CSZM was investigated as shown in
Figure 4 and it shows from the selected spectrum the existence of all chemicals Ce, Sm, Zr, and Mg with a total percentage of 100% without any other impurities and proof of a full and complete solid-state reaction occurred for all compound showing a pure phase fluorite type. What was interesting, is the homogeneity of the surface and there is no existence of any impurities or agglomerations [
52] and it is clearly observed in the selected spectrum, considering this case for all synthesized compounds with the different doping percentages of Mg 5%, 10% and 15%.
Thermogravimetric data was collected on uncalcined samples of Ce
0.7Sm
0.2Zr
0.05Mg
0.05O
1.9 (5%Mg), Ce
0.6Sm
0.2Zr
0.1Mg
0.1O
1.9 (10 %Mg) and Ce
0.5Sm
0.2Zr
0.15Mg
0.15O
1.9 (15%Mg) to know the sintering behavior of the samples. The weight loss started around 60 °C, and lost about 6% until 275 °C which was due to the evaporation of the absorbed water molecule. From 275 °C to 730 °C, another big loss (about 30%) was observed due to the decomposition of some oxides and the organic fuel into different gases, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapors [
53]. The final weight loss was observed until 900 °C which was about 15%.
Figure 5 illustrates the TGA profile of all 3 samples. There are small differences between the samples which can be neglected. The high-temperature loss is normally related to the chemical reaction [
54,
55], oxygen vacancy formation, and valence change of the constituting cations. This change confirms the full crystallization and phase formation above 900 °C. All gaseous products generated by volatilization and chemical reaction are transferred from the furnace chamber with the help of N2 gas which guarantees that there is no interference with the sample during thermal treatment. The 50% total weight loss is normal, as we heated the samples under a nitrogen atmosphere to avoid the presence of H
2 or O
2. The high-temperature region of TGA in the nitrogen atmosphere indicates the oxygen loss from the crystallite.
The solid electrolyte electrical properties were investigated and studied using (EIS) measurements and based on the given Nyquist plots in the three synthesized compounds total ionic conductivities were evaluated accordingly according to the given data in
Table 2, where symmetrical cells testing of the pellets were prepared and EIS measurements were achieved in the wet condition of 5% H
2/Ar.
The EIS developed measurements were used in measuring the electrical properties of CSZM compounds and the related electrical properties of the synthesized electrolyte material in a symmetrical cell testing based on anode-supported materials as can be observed from
Table 2 and the resultant ionic conductivity was accordingly calculated. Through Nyquist plots and with the fitting results it was easy to identify the needed information about the separate contribution of grain resistance, grain boundary resistance, and electrode process. The EIS measurements were achieved and analyzed using a Solartron 1255 (Schlumberger) frequency response analyzer (0.01 Hz~1 MHz). Results from Nyquist patterns analysis followed the included circuit range of 400 °C to, 700 °C with a step of 50 °C in wet 5% H
2/Ar.
Figure 6a,b,c show the fitted impedance plots obtained for CSZM oxides within the range of 400 °C to 700 °C. Resulted
in plots were characterized by the start of inductance L1 and followed by semicircles of two regions indicating the polarization resistance Rp from the electrode as grain boundaries [
56] along the whole tested ranges
From the analysis and fitting of the EIS plots, the capacitance was calculated for CSZM compounds [
56] in a range from 4.45 x 10
-3 F to 1.16 x 10
-10 F in a temperature from 400 to 700 °C for 5% doping with a narrow range of polarization resistance values from 3.35 x 10
-3 Ω to 3.77 x 10
+1Ω [
49]. For 10% CSZM the values of calculated capacitance were 8.54 x 10
-3 F to 5.2 x 10
-11 in the same range of temperature with a range of polarization resistance from 1.55 x 10
-3 Ω to 1.74 x 10
+2 Ω. While in the last composition, 15% CSZM the calculated values of capacitance are 8.54 x 10
-3 F to 5.34 x 10
-11 with 1.55 x 10
-2 Ω to 1.34 x 10
+2. The total conductivity of the symmetrical cell (σ), the total capacitance (C), and the
area-specific resistance (ASR) in addition to the polarization resistance (Ω) values are listed in the following
Table 3,
Table 4 and
Table 5.
It was clear from the given results listed in the above tables that the compounds of CSZM electrolyte materials are showing remarkable values in the measured conductivities however there is a small gap in the total conductivities between the 5% CSZM and 15% CSZM but they are still higher than some reported electrolyte materials [
57]. The Arrhenius plots in
Figure 7 demonstrated that Ce
0.7Sm
0.2Zr
0.05 Mg
0.05O
1.9 is showing
a higher value of 1.0461 x 10
+1 S/cm at 700 °C while the minimum value was 2.7329 x 10
-2 S/cm at 400 °C and the total activation energy was found E
a 0.6865 eV. The CSZM 5% was the highest in conductivity values
compared to both 10% and 15% CSZM and that returns to the highly dense electrolyte materials as some pores occurred in them. This was noticed from the SEM images. Meanwhile, the occurrence of this porosity still gives higher values of conductivities compared to the previously investigated electrolyte materials [
58] and this can be observed from plotted Arrhenius plots in
Figure 7 under 5% H
2/Argon wet atmosphere.
The CSZM electrolyte conductivity at 700 °C with 5% dopant has shown a higher value and it was higher than the reported ones in multi-dopant ceria electrolytes [
59,
60,
61,
62] and this because of the ordering of oxygen vacancies with small ionic radii and mobility makes these materials very conductive. However, the other 10% and 15% showed lower values due to the occurrence of voids and pores which can be overcome with doping of some materials in B sight like lithium oxide, [
63] or Zin oxides [
64] and it can be achieved at lower range of temperature and less than 1400 °C. The most essential finding of Mg doping for giving the higher conductivity values other than porosity and density in all synthesized series is due to the Mg doping altered the electronic structure [
65] of the host compound by altering the ion bond and crystal layer gap, and the chemical bond length between the doped and O atoms is proportional to the atomic radius of the doped cations.