Influence of Rare-Earth Dopants on Barium Titanate Ceramics Microstructure and Corresponding Electrical Properties

Volume 93 Issue 1, Pages 132 – 137

Vojislav V. Mitic, Zoran S. Nikolic, Vladimir B. Pavlovic, Vesna Paunovic, Miroslav Miljkovic, Branka Jordovic, Ljiljana Zivkovic
Published Online: Oct 29 2009 4:18PM
DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-2916.2009.03309.x

ABSTRACT
In this article, ytterbium and erbium oxides are used as doping materials for barium titanate (BaTiO3) materials. The amphoteric behavior of these rare-earth ions leads to the increase of dielectric permittivity and decrease of dielectric losses. BaTiO3 ceramics doped with 0.01-0.5 wt% of Yb2O3 and Er2O3 were prepared by conventional solid-state procedure and sintered at 1320°C for 4 h. In BaTiO3 doped with a low content of rare-earth ions (0.01 wt%) the grain size ranged between 10 and 25 μm. With the higher dopant concentration of 0.5 wt%, the abnormal grain growth is inhibited and the grain size ranged between 2 and 10 μm. The measurements of capacitance and dielectric losses as a function of frequency and temperature have been carried out in order to correlate the microstructure and dielectric properties of doped BaTiO3 ceramics. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant as a function of dopant amount has been investigated.

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