Characterization of excessive Sm3+containing barium titanate prepared by tartrate precursor method

The BaSm43xTi1−xO3(BST) samples, where (x = zero, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.3), have been successfully synthesized by tartrate precursor method at annealing temperature of 600°C under atmospheric pressure. The results revealed that the Sm content causes a decrease in both tetragonality and average grain size of BST samples. The electrical resistivity of BST samples is improved by low Sm content, reaching maximum value at x = 0.15 and then decreases with higher Sm content, suggesting that the conduction has two types of polaron hoping and semiconductor band conduction mechanisms at low and at high temperature ranges, respectively. It is demonstrated that the majority of charge carriers are p-type. The dielectric properties varies nonmonotonically with samarium content, showing strongly enhancement in dielectric constant for high Sm doping samples. It is recommended that BST samples are attractive for capacitor and energy storage applications.