Dielectric relaxation phenomenon and conductivity in lead-free ceramics

Relaxation phenomena and electric conductivity of (1-x) KNbO3-xK0.5Bi0.5TiO3 system where x = 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 have been studied at high temperature. A relaxation behavior was observed in temperature range 400 K ≤ T ≤ 550 K for orthorhombic solid solutions at room temperature. The activation energy (Ea) of this phenomenon was range from 0.68 eV for x = 0-0.489 eV for x = 0.075 with τ0 = 10−13 s. The relaxation was attributed to hopping of oxygen vacancies for solid solutions x ≤ 0.075. Substitution by K0.5Bi0.5TiO3 does not affect the electrical conductivity of KNbO3 too much, while the mobility of species such as oxygen vacancies and oxygen ions allow the increase of the conductivity σac at high temperatures.