Dielectric properties, microstructure and diffuse transition of Al-doped Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 ceramics

Pure and Al-doped BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3 (short for BZT) ceramics are prepared via the conventional solid state reaction method. The microstructures, dielectric properties, and diffuse transition of Al-doped BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3 ceramics were investigated. These results indicate that aluminum ions enter the unit cell maintaining the perovskite structure of solid solution. The addition of aluminum leads to the change of the Curie temperature. The dielectric loss of the Al-doped BZT ceramics is higher than that of pure BZT ceramics, and increases as aluminum content increases. The diffuseness of the phase transition of Al-doped BZT ceramics weakens with the increasing of aluminum content. There is no obvious frequency dispersion around the dielectric constant peaks for Al-doped BZT ceramics. The coercive electric field (E (C)) increases as Al content increases, and the remanent polarization (P (r)) of Al-doped BZT ceramics is lower than that of pure BZT ceramics.