Improvement on electrical properties of Ba0.9Ca0.1Ti0.9Sn0.1O3 ceramics with the addition of CeO2

The Ba0.90Ca0.10Ti0.90Sn0.10O3-xCeO2 (x = 0.0.09) ceramics (BCST-xCe, x = 0-0.09) were prepared by traditional solid-state sintering method. All the BCST-xCe samples present pure perovskite structures with the coexistence of orthorhombic phase and tetragonal phase. Ce ions occupy the B-site of the BCST lattice in the form of Ce4+, which can be attributed to the decrease of the dissipation factor and Td with increasing Ce content. Small amount of CeO2 (x = 0-0.03) motivates the formation of denser microstructures. The optimized piezoelectric parameters were obtained at x = 0.03 with d33 = 541pC/N, kp = 47.5%, which can be attributed to the MPB effect and the dense microstructure induced by the Ce doping. Dielectric behavior of all the sintered ceramics describes a mixed ferroelectric-relaxor feature. With the increasing of Ce content, the remnant polarization Pr decreases from 10.78μC/cm2 to 7.94μC/cm2.