Electrical and electrochemical properties of undoped CePO4 and doped Ce0.9Cd0.15-xLi2xPO4 nanomaterials (x=0 and 0.02)

Synthesis of metal ions (Cd2+, Li+) doped CePO4 nanocrystals were achieved through a simple hydrothermal route at 150 degrees C using citric acid and poly-ethylene-glycol (PEG-6000). The results obtained reveal that the low percentage of (Cd2+, Li+) dopant affect the structure showing a weak decrease in the lattice parameters compared to the CePO4. The total electrical conductivity plots obtained from impedance spectra, between 300 and 450 degrees C, indicated that the activation energies for CePO4, Ce0.9Cd0.15PO4, Ce0.9Cd0.13Li0.04PO4 are 1.05, 0.99 and 0.72 eV, respectively, showing an increase of the total conductivity as Li-content increases. The conduction mechanism is described using correlated barrier hopping model. The partial substitution leads to the improvement capacity when increasing the Li-content from 65F.g (1) for Ce0.9Cd0.15PO4 to 75F.g (1) for Ce0.9Cd0.13Li0.04PO4. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.