Effect of BiAlO3 modification on the stability of antiferroelectric phase in PbZrO3 ceramics prepared by conventional solid state reaction

In this paper, we report on the polycrystalline (Pb(1-3x/2)Bix)(Zr1-3x/4Alx)O-3 (PZO-BAO) ceramics, with x= 0.0-0.3, prepared by conventional solid state reaction. The crystal structure and thermal and dielectric properties of the sintered ceramics were investigated as a function of composition by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dielectric spectroscopy. The results indicated that the presence of BiAlO3: BAO in the solid solution decreased the structural stability of the overall perovskite phase. Dielectric, thermal and P-E hysteresis results confirmed that no ferroelectric intermediate phase was seen in the PZO-BAO system. An antiferroelectric phase can be stable in a wide temperature range, indicating that BAO enhanced antiferroelectric phase stability in perovskite PZ manifests by square antiferroelectric behavior. Therefore, the (Pb(1-3x/2)Bix)(Zr1-3x/4Alx)O-3 solid solution offers a material system for high-energy-storage capacitors and electromechanical transducers. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.