Structural and electrical properties of NdCo1−xNixO3

Abstract

Effect of Ni doping on the structural and electrical properties of NdCoO3, a compound of great interest for its foreseen applications as a catalyst, sensor, and thermoelectric material, has been investigated. Single phase NdCo1-xNixO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) were synthesized using solid state reaction method. To determine space group, lattice constants and atomic positions, Rietveld refinement of powder diffraction data has been performed. Four-probe direct current conductivity measurements were also carried out to investigate transport behavior of compounds. The unit cell parameters found to increase with Ni doping. The drastic improvement of the room-temperature conductivity of NdCo1-xNixO3 (x = 0.1, 0.2) with respect to the pure compound has been observed and explained in terms of decrease in band gap. Behavior in different regions of temperature investigated by fitting Arrhenius and variable range hopping (VRH) models.