Effect of NiO-doping on the microstructure and the dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 ceramics

The influence of NiO-doping on the microstructure and dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12–xNiO (x=0, 0.003, 0.006, 0.010, 0.015, and 0.020) ceramics has been investigated using SEM, Raman spectra and dielectric spectrum measurements. The positron annihilation lifetime spectra (PALS) are used to investigate the influence of defects on the dielectric properties. The SEM results show that the grain morphology varies significantly with increasing NiO content. An appropriate small amount of NiO can promote the grain growth, which is beneficial to improve the dielectric properties in a CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) system. Positron results show that there are vacancy-type defects in the experimental samples, and the concentration of the defect and the defect type both change with increasing NiO content. The effects of microstructure including the grain morphology and the vacancy defects on the mechanism of the dielectric properties by adding NiO are discussed. The results demonstrate the importance of the grain morphology and the characteristic of defects in controlling the electrical properties of CCTO ceramics.