Substitutionally driven phase transition and enhanced multiferroic and electrical properties of (1-x) BiFeO3 - (x) Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 ceramics (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.00)

Polycrystalline samples with compositions 0.0 <= x <= 1.00 in the (1-x) BiFeO3 - (x) Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 system were successfully synthesized by sol-gel method. Rietveld analysis of XRD data confirms the compositional driven phase transition from rhombohedral (R3c) for x = 0.0 to tetragonal (P4mm) for x = 1.0 via intermediate monoclinic phases with Cc and Cm symmetry and co-existence of two ferroelectric phases as well in these ceramics. Remanent magnetization is found to be maximum for x = 0.30 and remanent polarization has increased gradually with x up to x = 1.0. Substantial decrease in dielectric loss and leakage current density has been observed which is due to the suppression of defects like bismuth and oxygen vacancies with increasing x. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.