Electrophoretic deposition of doped ceria: Effect of solvents on deposition microstructure

Electrophoretic deposition of doped ceria has been carried out in non-aqueous solvent to prepare coatings on different substrates and free standing films. It has been found that uneven deposition occurred in ethanol, while in butanol deposition yield is low having very little variation with deposition time. On the other hand, good deposit obtained in acetyl acetone medium, but had a porous structure. The best result however was obtained in mixed solvent. Effect of adding charge modifying additives in the ceria suspension on the deposit microstructure has been studied. Mechanism of charging in the non-aqueous medium to modify the surface properties of the suspended particles has been discussed.