Cerium oxide (CeO2) buffer layers play an important role for the development of YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) based superconducting tapes using the rolling assisted biaxially textured substrates (RABiTS) approach. The chemical solution deposition (CSD) approach has been used to grow epitaxial CeO2 films on textured Ni-3 at.% W alloy substrates with various starting precursors of ceria. Precursors such as cerium acetate, cerium acetylacetonate, cerium 2-ethylhexanoate, cerium nitrate, and cerium trifluoroacetate were prepared in suitable solvents. The optimum growth conditions for these cerium precursors were Ar-4% H-2 gas processing atmosphere, solution concentration levels of 0.2-0.5 M, a dwell time of 15 min, and a process temperature range of 1050-1150 degrees C. X-ray diffraction, AFM, SEM, and optical microscopy were used to characterize the CeO2 films. Highly textured CeO2 layers were obtained on Ni-W substrates with both cerium acetate and cerium acetylacetonate as starting precursors. YBCO films with a J(c) of 1.5 MA/cm(2) were obtained on cerium acetylacetonate-based CeO2 films with sputtered YSZ and CeO2 cap layers. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.