Effect of sintering duration on structural and electrical properties of Ba0.9Sr0.1Ti0.96Zr0.04O3 solid solution

• Ba0.9Sr0.1Ti0.96Zr.04O3 (BSZT) has been synthesized using solid state reaction route.
• Effect of sintering duration on BSZT has been investigated.
• Grain morphology and grain size has been improved quite remarkably.
• Conductivity measurement shows a decrease in activation energy with increasing sintering duration.
• The composition has shown enhanced dielectric property compared to earlier work on BSZT ceramic.

Strontium and zirconium substituted barium titanate, Ba0.9Sr0.1Ti0.96Zr0.04O3 (BSZT) was prepared through the solid state reaction route. The compound was sintered for 6, 9 and 12 h and the effect of sintering duration has been studied. Structural investigation has been carried out using X-ray diffraction pattern of the samples following the Rietveld refinement, which confirms the formation of tetragonal phase with P4mm space group. The effect of Sr and Zr substitution in the BT lattice and effect of sintering duration in BSZT has been evaluated by Raman spectroscopy. The microstructural and dielectric studies show the increase in grain size as well as dielectric constant with increasing sintering duration. No appreciable change in Curie temperature (Tc) is observed for all three samples viz. BSZT6, BSZT9 and BSZT12. A decrease in activation energy and increase in diffusivity constant with increasing sintering duration is observed. I-V measurement was carried out to study the resistive properties of the synthesized compositions.