Effect of zirconia doping on the electrical behavior of yttria

The ac electrical behavior of yttria doped with a zirconia concentration ranging from 0.15 to 20 mole % is investigated in the temperature range of 800 to 1300 °C. The ac electrical data, obtained in the range from 5 Hz to 13 MHz, indicated two distinct relaxations when analyzed in the impedance plane. These relaxations are attributed to lumped grains and trapping within grain boundaries, including possible electrode/sample effects. The admittance plane analysis revealed a semicircular relaxation in the low-frequency region, indicating identical response to that of the low-frequency relaxation of the impedance plane. The incorporation of zirconia into yttria is found to lower the activation energy of conduction in the grains and enhance ionic contribution to the overall electrical conduction. The P_{O₂} studies and transference number measurements near atmospheric region indicate that p-type conduction dominates for the lightly doped yttria. An ionic contribution to the conduction processes becomes significant in heavily doped samples at/near atmospheric P_{O₂}.