Structural and thermal study of Pb(Zr,Ti,Ce)O/sub 3/ ceramics

Abstract

Solid solution having compositions Pb[Zr/sub x-y/Ce/sub y/Ti/sub 1-x/]O/sub 3/ with y=0.0, 0.001, 0.00125, and 0.02 were studied. The samples were prepared from sintered oxides. XRD measurements indicate a mixture of rhombohedral and tetragonal phases in all the samples, where the tetragonal phase increases with increasing CeO/sub 2/ concentration. Also, the c/a ratio of the tetragonal structure was found to increase with increasing CeO/sub 2/, content. Precipitation of cerium oxide was observed for the sample with y=0.02, showing that the solubility of CeO/sub 2/ in lead zirconate is lower than 2%. Raman scattering measurements confirm that all the samples are perovskite in structure, but inhomogeneities were found. The strong line around 465 cm/sup -1/, corresponding to F/sub 2g/ symmetry, shows the presence of cerium oxide in the sample with y=0.02. Finally, DSC measurements show that the Curie temperature decreases with increasing CeO/sub 2/ content.