Synthesis, structure and electrical studies of praseodymium doped barium zirconium titanate

• Nano crystalline solid solution of (Ba1-xPrx)(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (x=0.1 and 0.2).
• AC conduction mechanism.
• Complex impedance (Z*) spectroscopy.
• n-type non-degenerated semiconductor.
• NTC thermistor device.

Praseodymium (Pr) doped barium zirconium titanate with nominal composition (Ba1−xPrx)(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (x = 0.1 and 0.2) were synthesized using solid state reaction method. X-ray analysis conform the formation of cubic phase Pr-doped barium zirconium titanate along with minor pyrochloric phase. The increase in grain size after primary investigation reveals the influence of Pr ions on the domain structure and its microstructure. In order to correlate the effect of the chemical composition with the conduction mechanism, different AC electrical parameters have been addressed. The frequency dependant tangent loss of the sample was less for both the ceramics. The temperature dependence results show that the dielectric parameters and resistivity increases as Pr-content in the ceramic increases; this is attributed to the grain size and dipole dynamics. Complex impedance (Z*) plots show frequency dependent behavior as the response for the grain resistance mechanisms. This mechanism has been represented by an equivalent circuit. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient showed n-type non-degenerated semiconductor in the measured temperature range. The temperature dependent conductivity measurement suggests a novel negative temperature coefficient of resistance behavior of the samples. Furthermore, the frequency dependent conductivity plot shows increasing behavior.