Dielectric and ferroelectric characterization of niobium doped pzt (52/48) nanoceramics

High performance ferroelectric materials have attracted more attention due to its superior dielectric, piezoelectric, and electrostrictive properties. A sol-gel synthesis technique was used to prepare the perovskite Pb(Nbx(Zr0.52Ti0.48)(1−x))O3 (where x = 0, 0.02) nanoceramics. X-ray powder diffraction studies confirm the successful formation of perovskite (ABO3) structure of the ceramics without presence of pyrochlore (A3B4O13) phase which is unwanted for PZT system. Also, the thermogravimetric studies were conducted to confirm the structure formation at elevated temperature. The relative permittivity increases with doping of niobium and curie temperature decreases for the same. The dielectric study of the undoped PZT at the temperature of 500 °C and Nb doped PZT at the temperature of 350 °C for the same frequency of 100 Hz give relative permittivity, εr ≈ 11000 and εr ≈ 1850 respectively. An Arrhenius plot was used to calculate the activation energy and it was found to be 0.210, and 0.161 eV for the undoped and Nb-doped PZT ceramics respectively. The maximum remnant polarization is 1.21 μC/cm2 for niobium doped PZT and 0.16 μC/cm2 for undoped PZT for the applied voltage of 1500 V. The primary goal of this research is to determine how doping with niobium affects the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of PZT (52/48). •Prepared the niobium doped PZT nanoceramics by sol-gel route.•Structure confirmed by XRD pattern.•Dielectric and Impedance studies carried out using complex impedance spectroscopy.•Relative permittivity and curie temperature are found from dielectric studies.•Activation energy calculated from Arrhenius plot.•Remnant polarization and coercive field are found from ferroelectric hysteresis loop.