Effect of Ce-Mn Codoping on the Structural, Morphological and Electrical Properties of the BaTiO3 Based Ceramics

Undoped, Cerium (Ce) doped, Manganese (Mn) doped and Ce-Mn co-doped Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) with the general formula Ba1-xCexMnyTi1-yO3 (where x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, y = 0.00; x = 0.00, y =0.01, 0.02, 0.03; and x = y = 0.01, 0.02,0.03) were synthesized by solid-state reaction method and sintered at 1200 C for 4 hr with an aim to study their structural and electrical properties. The grain size of the samples has been estimated using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis indicates that the structure of the Ce-doped and Ce-Mn co-doped BaTiO3 is cubic. However, the undoped BaTiO3 and Mn-doped BaTiO3 confirmed the tetragonal-cubic mixed phases. With the change of doping concentrations, the positions of different peaks shifted slightly. The lattice parameter varied irregularly with increasing doping concentration because of Mn's changeable valency. EDX spectra confirmed the presence of Ba, Ti, Ce, and Mn contents in the co-doped samples with stoichiometric ratio. Crystallinity is observed to be clearly increased when Ce-Mn is co-doped in BaTiO3. J-V characteristic curves indicate transition from conducting to semiconducting nature for the doped and co-doped samples with the increase in temperature. The dielectric constant of the samples increases up to 4500 with the doping concentration. The higher values of dielectric constant are observed for the 2% Mn-doped and 1% Ce-Mn co-doped samples compared to the other undoped samples. For the undoped and Mn-doped samples, constant dielectric values increase with temperature but decrease for the Ce-doped and Ce-Mn co-doped samples. It is inferred that co-doping of BaTiO3 with Ce and Mn would be beneficial and economical for its applications.