Acceptor dependent structural, microstructural and dielectric properties of PbTiO3 nano-particles

Substituted lead titanate PbTi1−xNixO3 nano-particles (1 and 4 mol% Ni content) were synthesized by simple metallo-organic decomposition (MOD) method annealed at 700 °C for 3 h. Such type of doping will generally generate oxygen vacancies in the ceramic material and have application in microwave and solar cell devices. Structural properties were studied from XRD pattern and it confirms the formation of single tetragonal phase. Increased tetragonal distortion in crystal structure with the doping of Ni ions is depicted from XRD pattern and was the consequence of ionic radii mismatching between substituting atoms. Calculated average crystallite size values were 28 nm and 37 nm for PNT1 and PNT4 respectively. This pattern was supported by TEM images having a particle size 33 nm and 42 nm for PNT1 and PNT4 respectively. Absence of organic functional groups and formation of M–O bonds was illustrated from FTIR spectrum. Frequency dependent dielectric properties were studied in the range≈0.075–10 MHz at 300 K. Its results revealed the improvement in dispersion less behavior up to high frequency range∼6 MHz. The slight increase in dielectric loss value (tan δ≈0.0011) for PNT4 attributed to occurrence of oxygen vacancies in ceramic material due to Ni doping. The temperature dependent dielectric response was measured maximum at 100 KHz. Values of DC resistivity (ρ) for PNT1 and PNT4 were measured 258.5 and 181.6 Ω-cm×109 respectively.