Electrical and ferroelectric properties of undoped and La-doped PZT (52/48) electroceramics synthesized by sol–gel method

► Synthesis of La-doped PZT ceramics via sol–gel route. ► Confirm the perovskite phase by X-ray diffraction method. ► It is confirmed that the dielectric properties of La-doped PZT ceramics depends on both temperature and frequency. ► Activation energy of PLZT ceramics were calculated from Arrhenius’s equation. ► The remnant polarization and coercive electric fields are calculated from the ferroelectric hysteresis loop. The perovskite (ABO3) Pb1−xLax(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (where, x=0, 0.05, 0.10) were prepared by a sol–gel route. The X-ray powder diffraction studies of the prepared powders suggest the formation of single-phase PLZT compounds of tetragonal structure. The electrical properties of the prepared ceramics were investigated as a function of both temperature (range 25°C–500°C) and the frequency (range 100Hz–1MHz) using complex impedance spectroscopy (CIS). The values of activation energy of the samples were calculated from the slopes of the Arrhenius plots. The remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive electric field (Ec) were calculated from the ferroelectric loop.