Raman, XRD and microscopic investigations on CeO2-Lu2O3 and CeO2-Sc2O3 systems: A sub-solidus phase evolution study

A sub-solidus phase evolution study was done in CeO₂-Sc₂O₃ and CeO₂-Lu₂O₃ systems under slow-cooled conditions from 1400 °C. Long-range order probing of X-ray diffraction technique is utilized in conjunction with the ability of Raman spectroscopy to detect the changes in local co-ordination. Lu₂O₃ showed solubility of 30 mol% in CeO₂, thus forming an anion deficient fluorite-type (F-type) solid solution, whereas Sc₂O₃ did not show any discernible solubility. A biphasic region (F+C) was unequivocally detected by Raman spectroscopy in Ce_1−xLu_xO_2−x/2 (0.4?x?0.9) and in Ce_1−xSc_xO_2−x/2 (0.1?x?0.9) systems. Raman spectroscopy was valuable in studying these systems since oxygen vacancies are created on doping RE₂O₃ into ceria and Raman spectroscopy is very much sensitive to oxygen polarizability and local coordination. Back scattered images collected on representative compositions support the above-mentioned results.