Synthesis and Structural Characterization of BaTiO3 Doped with Gd3+

BaTiO3 doped with Gd3+, was synthesized from BaCO3, TiO2, and Gd2O3 as powders using the solid state reaction method (Ba1-xGdxTi1-x/4O3). The milling of the precursors was performed in an agate mortar with acetone as control means and compositions x = 0.001, 0.005, 0.05, 0.15, 0.25, 0.35 Gd3+ (wt%). Firstly, the powder mixture was decarbonated at 900 °C for 8 h, after it was sintered at 1400 °C for 5 h. Tetragonality of synthesized BaTiO3 doped with Gd3+ was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). Subsequently, the powders sintered were uniaxially compacted cold until to obtain pellets of about 10 mm in diameter; which again were sintered at 1400 °C for 4 h. XRD patterns and Raman spectra results revealed that the crystal phase of the obtained particles was predominately tetragonal BaTiO3.