Effects of GeO2 addition on physical and electrical properties of BaFe0.5Nb0.5O3 ceramic

This paper presents the effect of GeO2 glass former on the physical and electrical properties of BaFe0.5Nb0.5O3 (BFN) perovskite ceramics. The BFN powder was prepared by a conventional mixed-oxide method and the GeO2 contents, ranging from 1 to 5 wt.%, were subsequently added to the calcined BFN powder. The mixtures were pressed and sintered to form dense ceramics. We showed that, with the addition of GeO2, the maximum density was achieved at lower sintering temperature, approximately 200–225 °C lower than those required by the pure BFN ceramic. However, the densities of these GeO2 doped BFN ceramics were slightly lower than those of pure BFN due to the occurrence of pores. We also found that the addition of GeO2 reduces the dielectric loss at room temperature from 4.29 to 0.39–0.79 but the dielectric constant at room temperature decreased with the increased GeO2 concentrations. With small amount of added GeO2, ferroelectric property of BFN ceramics was also obtained, as confirmed by their hysteresis loops.