Structural, dielectric, thermal and electrical characteristics of lead-free double perovskite: BiHoZnCeO6

BiHoZnCeO6, the double pervoskite was synthesized using a cost-effective solid-state reaction method. The structural evaluation of the double pervoskite, when carried out by using the X-ray diffraction pattern suggested an orthorhombic crystal geometry with non- centrosymmetry space group Pca2(1). The microstructural investigation on the above material is carried out with the help of a scanning electron micrograph. These SEM micrographs showed that the grains of varying sizes (0.5-2 mu m) are uniformly distributed. The study of dielectric characteristics as a function of temperature and frequency revealed some interesting characteristics of the material. One such observation is the identification of ferroelectric transition temperature at 435 degrees C. The strong anomaly at 435 degrees C and the ferroelectric behavior of the material is further validated by the study of spontaneous polarization (the hysteresis loop). In the present communication, the detailed microstructural, dielectric (dielectric constant, tangent loss, and electric polarization), thermal and electrical (impedance, electrical modulus, conductivity) studies on bismuth holmium zinc ceranate is presented along with the existence of ferroelectricity.