Effect of doping Pr on multiferroic properties of Bi5Fe0.5Co0.5Ti3O15 ceramics at room temperature

The polycrystalline Bi5-xPrxFe0.5Co0.5Ti3O15 (BPFCT-x: x = 0.25, 0.50, 075, 0.80) ceramics are prepared by an improved solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction structure analysis shows that the content of Pr has an influence on the microstructure of sample, but all the samples are layered perovskite structure. The remanent polarization (2P(r)) first increases and then decreases with the increase of Pr content (x), so do the magnetic and ferroelectric properties. The remanent polarization reaches a maximum vaule of 6.43 mu C/cm(2), when x = 0.75. The remanent magnetization (2M(r)) increases to a maximum value of 0.097 emu/g when x = 0.75, and then decreases with the increase of Pr content (x). with the increase of Pr doping the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties of sample at room temperature can be obviously improved, and when x = 0.75, multiferroic properties of the sample at room temperature is the best. The improvement in ferroelectric properties of sample is related to Pr doping. With the increase of Pr content (x), the defect concentration of the sample can be reduced, ferroelectric domain of movement can be improved, and the improvement in ferromagnetic property is possibly related to the lattice deformation which is affected by Pr.