Enhancement in dielectric and ferroelectric properties of lead free Bi0.5(Na0.5K0.5)0.5TiO3 ceramics by Sb-doping

Lead free piezoelectric Bi-0.5(Na0.5K0.5)(0.5)TiO3 (pure and 1 wt.%, 2 wt.%, 4 wt.% Sb-doped) ceramics were synthesized away from its MPB. The crystalline nature of the BNKT ceramic was studied by XRD and SEM. Depolarization temperature (T-d) and transition temperature (T-c) were observed through phase transitions in dielectric studies which were found to increase after Sb-doping, thus increasing its usable temperature range. In the study of relaxation behavior, the activation energy for relaxation was found to be 0.33, 0.43, 0.57 and 0.56 eV for pure and Sb-doped samples, respectively. All samples were found to exhibit normal Curie-Weiss law above their T-c. Doping of Sb was found to restrain the diffused character of the pure sample. In P-E loop, Sb-doping was found to increase the ferroelectric properties. Pure and Sb-doped BNKT ceramics exhibited high values of piezoelectric charge coefficient (d(33)) as 115, 121, 129 and 100 pC/N, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.