A and B site engineered doping of the Bi2O3 to tune the structural and optical properties of lead-free BCZT ceramic

This work reports the different solid-state synthesis routes to tune between the A-site and B-site incorporation of the Bi2O3 additive element in the lead-free Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) ceramic. The structural and optical properties of the synthesized samples were systematically investigated by utilizing XRD, FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, UV–visible, and Photoluminescence spectroscopy. The shifting of the XRD peaks towards higher angles and the decrement of the O–Ba–O bond length in the FT-IR spectra of the doped sample confirmed the A-site incorporation of the Bi3+ ion. Whereas, B-site substituted samples have shown the lower angle shifting of the XRD peaks and increased value of the O–Ti–O bond length in FT-IR spectra. The presence of co-existing multi-phases in all prepared ceramics structures were verified by the splitting of XRD peaks and Raman Spectroscopy data analysis. A significant decrement in the value of the energy band gap and higher emission intensity for the A-site doped sample was observed from the UV–visible and PL spectra respectively. These observations made from the optical properties indicate that the A-site substituted ceramics can greatly enhance the electrical and optical properties of the pure material concerning the B-site substituted ceramics.