Sintering Temperature Dependent Magnetic and Dielectric Properties of Polycrystalline xBa<sub>0.95</sub>Sr<sub>0.05</sub>TiO<sub>3</sub>-(1 - x)BiFe<sub>0.90</sub>Gd<sub>0.10</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Ceramics

Abstract

Polycrystalline xBa 0.95 Sr 0.05 TiO 3 -(1 − x)BiFe 0.90 Gd 0.10 O 3 ceramics were prepared by standard solid state reaction technique using the solid solution of BaCO 3 , SrCO 3 , TiO 2 , Bi 2 O 3 , Fe 2 O 3 and Gd 2 O 3 . The compound is a BiFeO 3 based multiferroic material which contains both magnetic and electric properties. The synthesized ceramics noticed better properties than xBaTiO 3 -(1 − x)BiFeO 3 because of adding rare earth element Gd which have higher magnetic moment than Fe. The prepared samples were sintered at 900˚C, 950˚C and 1000˚C for 1 h. The effect of sintering temperature on density of the compound, complex initial permeability, dielectric properties and complex impedance analysis was reported in this article. Density of the ceramics was found to be enhanced with the rise in sintering temperature which implied porosity of the compound decreased when sintering temperature was increased. Enhanced complex initial permeability was noticed for the samples up to 950˚C and this might be attributed to reducing the motion of domain wall when the ceramics were sintered above 950˚C. Value of dielectric constant increased whereas dielectric loss decreased and these modifications might be expected because of changing density and grain size due to the variation of sintering temperature. Grain resistance (resistance due to grains) was determined from complex impedance analysis and it reduced with the rise in sintering temperature. The studied multiferroic material exhibited weak ferromagnetism but is an alternative product of environmental hazard lead (Pb) based multiferroic material and it is expected to be environment friendly.