Obtaining structural parameters of cerium-doped lanthanum cobaltites from X-ray diffraction pattern modeling

Abstract

In this work, structural parameters of lanthanum cobaltites doped with cerium atomic concentration of 1%, 3%, and 5 %, synthesized using the sol-gel method and considering calcination temperature of 900 °C, were estimated from the modeling of the X-ray diffraction patterns of the samples. Modeling of the experimental X-ray diffraction patterns is carried out using the Rietveld refinement method implemented with the Fullprof-Suite program. Estimation of crystallite sizes obtained from diffraction peak modeling, implemented with the X powder program, and using the Scherrer equation and Williamson-Hall plots, considering Lorentzian and Pseudo Voigt line profiles, are also performed. Additionally, the obtained compounds were also characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The identified phase for the samples corresponds to hexagonal perovskite structure and (# 167) space group, with crystallite size in the range of 38 nm to 56 nm. In general, significant changes in the structural parameters of the samples due to doping with cerium are not evidenced.