Evolution of microstructure and dielectric properties of (LiCe)-doped
Na
0.5
Bi
2.5
Nb
2
O
9
Aurivillius type ceramics
Zhihang Peng, Qiang Chen, Dan Liu, Yadan Wang, Dinquan Xiao, Jianguo Zhu
*
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, 610064 Chengdu, China
article info
Article history:
Received 5 December 2012
Received in revised form
7 March 2013
Accepted 9 March 2013
Available online 28 March 2013
Keywords:
Aurivillius-type ceramics
Dielectric relaxation
Electrical properties
Impedance
Oxygen vacancies
abstract
Aurivillius type (NaBi)
0.5x
(LiCe)
x
Bi
2
Nb
2
O
9
ceramics were prepared by the standard ceramics route. The
single crystal structural ceramics were achieved for all compositions and lattice distortion was decreased
by (LiCe) dopants. The temperature dependent dielectric properties revealed that all compositions
possess a high Curie-temperature (>780
C). A modified CurieeWeiss relationship is used to study the
diffuseness behavior of a ferroelectric phase transition indicating the degree of diffuseness of NBN-based
ceramics increased with (LiCe) modifications. The degradation of resistance implied a plausible model
that Ce
4þ
ions entered into the B-site of the pseudo-perovskite structure and acted as acceptor doping.
Further investigation demonstrated that both electrical conduction and dielectric relaxation processes
were associated with the oxygen vacancies produced by the substitution of Nb
5þ
ions by the Ce
4þ
ions.
Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Piezoelectric ceramics based on the lead zirconia titanate (PZT)
compounds have held a key position as actuators, filters, electro-
acoustic transducers in the recent decades [1]. For these com-
pounds, however, cause some serious environmental pollution
because of the toxicity of Pb elements and its high vapor pressure
during the manufacture process. In addition, the relatively low
Curie-temperature (<380
C for the MPB composition) restricted its
applications in hazardous environments (T 500
C), such as
aircraft, aerospace and nuclear power industries [2].
Bismuth-layer-structured ferroelectrics (BLSFs), as called Auri-
villius type compounds are a member of mixed bismuth oxides of
the general formula (Bi
2
O
2
)
2þ
(A
m1
B
m
O
3mþ1
)
2
, where A is mono-,
di-, trivalent ion or a mixture allowing dodecahedral coordination,
B is a combination of transition metal cations well suited for
octahedral coordination, and m is the number of octahedral layers
in the perovskite slab in the range of 1e6 [3,4]. The BLSFs family
compounds have attracted much attention due to some features,
such as low permittivity, low aging rates or fatigue free properties,
strong anisotropic electromechanical properties and high Curie
points, and therefore is a promising candidate for high temperature
sensor applications [5,6].
However, because of restriction of spontaneous polarization in
the aeb plane, the piezoelectric coefficients of polycrystalline ce-
ramics prepared by the conventional solid state sintered route
are relatively low. To overcome this shortcoming, chemical
substitutions on the A- or B-sites are reported in many literatures
[7e10]. It was found that (MCe) (M ¼ Li, Na, K) dopants can effi-
ciently enhance the piezoelectric coefficients for even-layer
structured Aurivillius type compounds compared to the pure
composition [6,9,10]. Accordingly, the (MCe) dopants decreased the
high temperature resistivity, suppressed the maximum dielectric
constants and degraded the stability of temperature dependent
piezoelectric properties in these works.
In this study, simple two-layer structured (LiCe) doped
Na
0.5
Bi
2.5
Nb
2
O
9
ceramics were prepared by the standard ceramics
routes. The effects of (LiCe) dopants were evaluated, with emphasis
on the dielectric relaxation behavior. Furthermore, the corre-
sponding physical nature was also addressed in this paper.
2. Experimental details
(Na,Bi)
0.5x
(Li,Ce)
x
Bi
2
Nb
2
O
9
(abbreviated as NLC-100x, x ¼ 0,
0.025, 0.05, 0.075 mol) ceramics were prepared by standard
ceramic preparation routes. Bi
2
O
3
(99%, Sinopharm Chemical Re-
agent Co., Ltd., China), Na
2
CO
3
(99.8%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent
Co., Ltd., China), Nb
2
O
5
(99.5%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co.,
Ltd., China), Li
2
CO
3
(99.99%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd.,
China), and CeO
2
(99.99%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd.,
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 28 85412202; fax: þ86 28 85460353.
E-mail addresses: chemiepengzh@yahoo.cn, nic0400@scu.edu.cn (J. Zhu).
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Current Applied Physics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cap
1567-1739/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cap.2013.03.008
Current Applied Physics 13 (2013) 1183e1187