Effects of Ag addition on the structural and electrical properties of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 ceramics

Abstract

ABSTRACTLa0.67Sr0.33MnO3:mol-%Agx (LSMO:Agx, x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) polycrystalline ceramics were prepared by chemical co-precipitation methods. All of the LSMO:Agx samples showed rhombohedral perovskite structure with a space group of . The diffraction peaks of metallic Ag did not appear in the XRD graph, due to the Ag substitution at A sites (La3+ or Sr2+ ions) and the evaporation loss of the element Ag in the process of high-temperature sintering, or the residual amount of Ag beyond the sensitivity of the XRD. With the increase of Ag addition, unit cell volume (V), metal−insulator transition temperature (Tp) and conductivity at Tp (ρTp) of the LSMO:Agx samples increased significantly. At the same time, the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR%), temperature peak of the TCR% (Tk) and the figure of merit (Z) reached the optimal values of 3.3% K−1, 367 K and 0.049 at x = 0.3. Ag substitution at A sites (La3+ or Sr2+ ions) and gathering at grain boundaries (GBs) were proposed to explain the existence of Ag addition. All results suggested that the enhancement of electrical properties was due to silver-doping and it increased the bond angles of Mn−O−Mn (θMn−O−Mn) and the bond distance of Mn−O (dMn−O), improving Mn4+ concentration, grain sizes and GBs connectivity in LSMO:Agx ceramics.