Structural, Micro-Structural and Electrical Properties of Rare Earth Doped Bi4V2O11 Ceramics

Abstract

Rare earth (Nd) doped polycrystalline samples, Bi4V2-xNdxO11 (x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20), were prepared by using solid–state reaction technique. The physical properties of the samples were studied by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and AC impedance. The studied samples showed an orthorhombic structure for x = 0.05–0.10 and monoclinic structure for x = 0.15–0.20 through X-ray diffraction (XRD) at room temperature. The nature of Nyquist plot confirmed the presence of contribution of both grain and grain boundary effects and non-Debye type of relaxation process occur for all Nd doped compounds. The frequency dependent ac conductivity followed Jonscher's universal power law. Dimensionless frequency exponent (n) and dispersion parameter (A) were determined by fitting the power law. The nature of variation of dc conductivity suggested the Arrhenius type of electrical conductivity for all the samples. The activation energies were found to be increased with increase in Nd content on vanadium site. The value of dc conductivity is high (0.78 eV) for x = 0.20.