Implementing a sol-gel route to adjust the structural and dielectric characteristics of Bi and Fe co-doped BaTiO3 ceramics

Abstract

The present work explores the impact of Fe insertion on the physical properties of Ba0.95Bi0.05Ti1-xFexO3 (x = 0.025, 0.050, and 0.075) prepared via sol gel method. The resulting samples crystallize in the tetragonal structure with space group P4mm and their morphological features point out the variation of the microstructure with Fe content. In turn, the dielectric constant versus temperature plot reveals the existence of two transition phases: the first one is ferroelectric-paraelectric transition phase (TF-P) and the second one is ferroelectric orthorhombic - ferroelectric tetragonal phase (TO-T). Analysis of conductivity curves using Jonscher’s augmented equation (for x = 0.025) and Jonscher’s power law (for x = 0.075) suggests the Non-Overlapping Small Polaron Tunneling (NSPT) model as a conduction mechanism.