Materials Research Bulletin, Vol.64, 175-181, 2015
Influence of Er substitution for La on the thermal conductivity of (La1-x,Er-x)(2)Zr2O7 pyrochlores
The influences of Er2O3 doping on the structure and thermophysical properties of La2Zr2O7 were investigated. The (La1-x,Er-x)(2)Zr2O7 ceramics were synthesized by a solid state reaction method. The XRD results indicate that they all consist of the pure pyrochlore structure. The SEM results show that the microstructure of the sintered ceramics is dense and the grain boundaries are clean. The average thermal expansion coefficients of the (La1-x,Er-x)(2)Zr2O7 ceramics range from 9.57 x 10(-6) K-1 to 9.66 x 10(-6) K-1. The substitution of Er3+. for La3+ effectively reduces the thermal conductivity of La2Zr2O7. With the increasing Er3+ content, the thermal conductivity significantly decreases at lower temperatures. At higher temperatures, however, the thermal conductivity of the (La1-xErx)(2)Zr2O7 becomes similar, indicating that the thermal conductivity is less sensitive to composition variation. In addition, for the composition with x =0.10, the thermal conductivity reveals a nearly temperature-independent behavior, which should be ascribed to the strong phonon scattering source (rattlers). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:(La1-xErx)(2)Zr2O7 ceramics;Pyrochlore structure;Thermal conductivity;Thermal barrier coatings