Oxygen diffusion in nanocrystalline CeO2

In this study, ¹⁸O diffusion and related transport on 1-2 μm thick nanocrystalline ceria films prepared by sol-gel process with an average grain-size in the range of 3-38 nm are studied. Initial ¹⁸O diffusion results indicate increased diffusion in 6 nm average grain-size nano-ceria films compared to ∼38 nm average grain-size poly-ceria films. Conductivity values in the case of ∼3 nm average grain size CeO₂ films grown at 573 K observed to be marginally increased compared to ∼6 nm average grain size ceria films grown at 723 K. A detailed nano-grain analysis by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) was carried out to understand the effect of nanocrystallinity on the blocking phenomena.