Materials Science and Engineering B 113 (2004) 215–223 Studies on structural, electrical and electromechanical properties of Sb 3+ -modified PLZT Soma Dutta a , R.N.P. Choudhary a,∗ , P.K. Sinha b a Department of Physics and Meteorology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur-721302, India b Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur-721302, India Received 3 November 2003; accepted 3 August 2004 Abstract The Sb-modified PLZT with a general formula [Pb 0.92 (La 1-z Sb z ) 0.08 (Zr 0.65 Ti 0.35 ) 0.98 ]O 3 (z = 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1) were prepared by a solid-state reaction technique. Detailed studies of the effect of Sb in small concentration on structure, microstructure, electrical as well as electromechanical properties of the PLZT ceramics have been completed. Preliminary X-ray diffraction study of the materials suggested the formation of single-phase compound. SEM studies reveal the presence of homogeneous grain with a certain degree of porosity. The electrical and electromechanical properties of the compounds have provided their interesting ferroelectric and sensing properties. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Dielectric; X-ray technique; Electron microscopy; Electrical properties; Sensing property 1. Introduction A large number of compounds of the perovskite fam- ily of a general formula ABO 3 (A = mono or divalent, B = tri-hexavalent ions) have attracted researchers to exam- ine their physical properties in search of new compounds for solid-state devices. Among all the lead based simple or complex ferroelectric compounds studied so far, Pb(Zr/Ti)O 3 (usually referred to as PZT) in different Zr/Ti ratios (1 ≤ Zr/Ti ≤ 2)-is found to be very useful for different device applications [1,2]. Most of the physical properties of PZT have been enhanced or tailored on substitution of suitable single/multi-elements (in small amounts) at the Pb-site. One system that embraces all compositional aspects of the di- electric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, ferroelectrics and elec- trooptic ceramic is the La modified PZT (PLZT). It has been found that La-modified PZT (PLZT) is very suitable for various functional devices e.g., transducers, sensors, hy- drophone, electro-optic modulator, sonar projector and ferro- electric cathode with high current density [3–6]. By making ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 3222 83814; fax: +91 3222 255303. E-mail address: crnpfl@phy.iitkgp.ernet.in (R.N.P. Choudhary). a suitable substitution at Pb and/or Ti (= A and/or B) sites of PLZT, a large number of charge neutral or charge defi- cient compounds have been prepared. Here we report our work on trivalent Sb-modified PLZT (PLSZT) prepared by a solid-state reaction technique with a molecular formula of [Pb 0.92 (La 1-z Sb z ) 0.08 (Zr 0.65 Ti 0.35 ) 0.98 O 3 (PLSZT) where z = 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.0. 2. Experimental Polycrystalline samples of [Pb 0.92 (La 1-z Sb z ) 0.08 ] [Zr 0.65 Ti 0.35 ] 0.98 O 3 (z = 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1) were prepared employing a high-temperature solid-state reaction technique with the following starting materials: PbO (99.99%, M/S Aldrich Chemical Company Inc., USA), La 2 O 3 (99.9%, M/S Indian Rare Earth Ltd.), Sb 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 (97%, M/S Loba Chemie Inc., Bombay, India), TiO 2 (99.5%, M/S Loba Chemie Inc., Bombay, India) in a suitable stoichiometry. These ingredients were thoroughly mixed and grounded in dry condition for 1 h, and in wet (methanol) medium for 1 h in an agate mortar and pestle to get homogeneous mixture of 0921-5107/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.mseb.2004.08.006