Preparation and Electrical Properties of (Ca, Mn)-codoped Ba1-xSrxTiO3 Solid Solution

(Ca, Mn)-codoped Ba1-xSrxTiO3 (BST) solid solution, i.e. Ba0.4Sr0.5Ca0.08Mn0.02TiO3, was successfully synthesized via sol-gel process. The product was characterized by TG-DTA thermal analyses, XRD, TEM.The effects of both curing temperature and applied voltage on the resistance, etc. were investigated. It showed that the structure of BST was unable to be changed even though it was codoped by Ca2+ and Mn2+. TEM photographs demonstrated the influence of curing temperature on the morphologies of the tested samples. The dependence of resistance on the curing temperature illustrated that (Ca, Mn)-codoped BST was capable of exhibiting the positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect at low frequency; nevertheless,it might display the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) effect at other frequencies. The relationships between the resistance and applied voltage revealed that the resistance property of (Ca, Mn)-codoped BST appeared at low frequencies, but its property of capacitive reactance might present at high frequency. These findings mean that the electrical property of BST can be adjusted by codoping method. These phenomena can be explained by the grain boundary resistance effect, Heywang model and ion polarization theory.