Abnormal dielectric behaviors in Mn-doped CaCu3Ti4O12 ceramics and their response mechanism

Mn-doped CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) polycrystalline ceramics have been prepared by the conventional solid state sintering. Our results indicate that 10% Mn doping can decrease the dielectric permittivity in CaCu3Ti4O12 by about 2 orders of magnitude (from 104 to 102). The grain and grain boundary activation energies show an obvious increase from 0.054 eV to 0.256 eV, and decrease from 0.724 eV to 0.258 eV with increasing the Mn doping concentration, respectively, which may be caused by the variation of Cu and Ti valence states in the CCTO samples evidenced by the X-ray absorption spectra. The similar grain and grain boundary activation energies result in invalidation of the internal boundary layer capacitance effect for the 10% Mn-doped CCTO sample, and thus result in the dramatic decrease of dielectric permittivity.

► Mn-doping affects the electric behaviors remarkably in CCTO ceramics.
► The activation energy of grain and grain boundary disappears with increasing the Mn doping concentration.
► The XANES spectra reveal that valence states of Ti, Mn and Cu in the grain and grain boundary changes greatly.