High ionic conductivity in confined bismuth oxide-based heterostructures

Bismuth trioxide in the cubic fluorite phase (delta-Bi2O3) exhibits the highest oxygen ionic conductivity. In this study, we were able to stabilize the pure delta-Bi2O3 at low temperature with no addition of stabilizer but only by engineering the interface, using highly coherent heterostructures made of alternative layers of delta-Bi2O3 and Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ), deposited by pulsed laser deposition. The resulting [delta-Bi2O3/YSZ] heterostructures are found to be stable over a wide temperature range (500-750 degrees C) and exhibits stable high ionic conductivity over a long time comparable to the value of the pure delta-Bi2O3, which is approximately two orders of magnitude higher than the conductivity of YSZ bulk. (C) 2016 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license