Synthesis and microstructure of (Ce0.2Zr0.2La0.2Sm0.2Nd0.2)O2-δ high-entropy oxides characterized by fluorite structure

Abstract

In this work, single-phase (Ce0.2Zr0.2La0.2Sm0.2Nd0.2)O2-δ high-entropy fluorite oxides (HEFOs) were successfully prepared by conventional solid-phase reaction method and crystal structure and microstructure were studied in-depth. Single-phase (Ce0.2Zr0.2La0.2Sm0.2Nd0.2)O2-δ is formed at 1600 °C for 12 h, and five cationic elements are uniformly distributed without any segregation at the micrometer and nanometer scales. And the XRD patterns with Rietveld refinement reveal the formation of single-phase fluorite structure of (Ce0.2Zr0.2La0.2Sm0.2Nd0.2)O2-δ. The SAED patterns on the [0 1‾ 1] band axes are similar to the diffraction patterns of face-centered cubic fluorite structure, and the standard deviation of the cation radius (coordination VIII) distribution of the specimens is 0.1277, which is again identified as forming a single-phase fluorite structure. The bulk specimens are solid compacts free of obvious cracks with randomly distribution porosity at a rare level, and the powder specimens are irregular fragmented shapes with an average particles size of 5.41 μm. The average cation radius and interplanar spacings becomes larger compared with standard fluorite structure of CeO2 due to the cation radius of La3+, Sm3+ and Nd3+ are larger than that of Ce4+, leading to an increase in lattice parameters of the HEFOs. In addition, the concentration of Ce3+ in the Ce cation is only 8.1 %, and the δ-value is calculated to be 0.3081 based on the content of all cations per mole of the substance, which indicates that the composition of the prepared specimen is (Ce0.2Zr0.2La0.2Sm0.2Nd0.2)O1.6919.