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Dielectric Response and Low Dielectric Loss of Gadolinium-Doped CaCu3Ti4O12 Ceramics Processed Through Conventional and Microwave Sintering

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Abstract

Gadolinium-doped (CaCu3Ti4O12/CCTO)x ceramics were fabricated using conventional (CS) and microwave sintering (MWS) at x = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. The green compacts were sintered at 1100°C via muffle and microwave furnace at 5°C min−1/12 h and 50°C min−1/30 min, respectively. A single pure cubic phase of CCTO for MWS and minor secondary phases for CS were revealed by x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed a reduction in grain size from ~ 20.04 ± 8.43 µm to ~ 17.52 ± 7.77 µm and ~ 1.99 ± 0.44 µm to ~ 1.32 ± 0.27 µm for both CS and MWS. The charge carrier hopping between Cu+ and Ti3+ was probed using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which confirmed the conductivity of grains and internal barrier layer capacitance (IBLC) effect. Broadband dielectric spectrometer findings revealed a dielectric constant of ɛ > 104 at 10 Hz and ɛ > 103 at 100 kHz for CS at x = 0.2 and ɛ > 102 at 10 Hz (x ≤ 0.2) for MWS. A very minimal tanδ of 0.08 (x = 0.2) was recorded at 100 kHz.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge VIT Vellore for providing a VIT Seed Grant to carry out this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, 632014, India

    T. Gecil Evangeline

  2. Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Research, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, 632014, India

    A. Raja Annamalai

  3. Institute of Plasma Physics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, U Slovanky 1a, 182 00, Prague, Czech Republic

    Pavel Ctibor

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  1. T. Gecil Evangeline
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Correspondence to A. Raja Annamalai.

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Gecil Evangeline, T., Raja Annamalai, A. & Ctibor, P. Dielectric Response and Low Dielectric Loss of Gadolinium-Doped CaCu3Ti4O12 Ceramics Processed Through Conventional and Microwave Sintering. J. Electron. Mater. 52, 3848–3858 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-023-10341-w

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