Effect of firing temperature on structural and electrical parameters of synthesized CeO2 thick films

In this work, the Ceria (CeO2) was synthesized by co-precipitation method. The thick films of synthesized CeO2 were prepared by screen printing technique. Films were fired at 350 degrees C, 400 degrees C, 450 degrees C for 2 h in muffle furnace. These films were characterized by XRD to investigate the structural properties of prepared material. The XRD confirmed the single phase cerium oxide nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy was utilized for the morphological parameters of prepared cerium oxide nanoparticles. The cubic shaped cerium nanoparticles with various diameters were observed from SEM images. The elemental composition of ceria was studied by EDS, where the perfect elemental composition of ceria was confirmed. The Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy was employed to find out metal- oxide vibrational bands in the cerium oxide nanoparticles. The effect of firing temperature was studied for cerium oxide calcined at 350 degrees C, 400 degrees C and 450 degrees C nanoparticles to study the various parameters such as Grain Size, Temperature Coefficient (T-c), Stacking Fault Probability (alpha), Dislocation Density (rho), Surface area, Activation Energy and RMS Microstrain (e). [GRAPHICS] .