Microstructural, structural and dielectric properties of Er3+-modified BaTi0.85Zr0.15O3 ceramics

✍ Scribed by E. Antonelli; M. Letonturier; J.-C. M’Peko; A.C. Hernandes

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 733 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0955-2219
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2008.09.009

✦ Synopsis

The (micro)structural and electrical properties of undoped and Er 3+ -doped BaTi 0.85 Zr 0.15 O 3 ceramics were studied in this work for both nominal Ba 2+ and Ti 4+ substitution formulations. The ceramics were produced from solid-state reaction and sintered at 1400 • C for 3 h. For those materials prepared following the donor-type nominal Ba 1-x Er x (Ti 0.85 Zr 0.15 )O 3 composition, especially, Er 3+ however showed a preferential substitution for the (Ti,Zr) 4+ lattice sites. This allowed synthesis of a finally acceptor-like, highly resistive Ba(Ti,Zr,Er)O 3-δ -like system, with a solubility limit below but close to 3 cat.% Er 3+ . The overall phase development is discussed in terms of the amphoteric nature of Er 3+ , and appears to mainly or, at least, partially also involve a minimization of stress effects from the ion size mismatch between the dopant and host cations. Further results presented here include a comparative analysis of the behavior of the materials' grain size, electrical properties and nature of the ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transition upon variation of the formulation and Er 3+ content.