Temperature effects on structural properties in the synthesis of nanocrystalline Zr0.5Ce0.5O2 solid solution: A study by XRD and HRTEM

In the present work, a nanostructured Zr0.5Ce0.5O2 solid solution was synthesized using a citrate complexation technique with different thermal treatments. The resulting powders were characterized by employing X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). A qualitative analysis of the XRD data indicated that all samples exhibited a tetragonal phase (P42/nmc space group). In HRTEM observations, the internal crystal structure of the nanoparticles was studied and the primary particle sizes were measured. Average crystallite size, obtained from the XRD data using the Scherrer equation, ranged from 4.1 nm to 7.7 nm.