Effect of doping Gd2O3 on dielectric and piezoelectric properties of BaZr0.1Ti0.9O3 ceramics by sol-gel method

The effects of sintering temperature and doping amount of gadolinium ions on the microstructures and electrical properties of sol gel derived Ba (Zr0.1Ti0.9) O-3+xGd ceramics were investigated in this manuscript. XRD analysis showed that the main crystalline phase of BZT-xGd ceramic samples exhibit a perovskite structure without significantly change. The sample sintered at 1350 degrees C and doped with gadolinium ions of 0.5mol% has uniform grain size and compact morphology. And the sample(1350 degrees C0.5mol%) also has a high piezoelectric charge coefficient of 131.33 pC/N, large plane electromechanical coupling coefficient of 0.22, high dielectric constant of 10504, and small dielectric loss of 0.01. The correlation of dielectric and piezoelectric properties of BZT-xGd ceramics with doping amount of Gd3+ ion has been explained by the lattice theory.