Fatigue melioration of neodymium-modified Bi4Ti3O12 ceramics

Pure and Nd-modified Bi4Ti3O12 ceramics were prepared using the conventional solid state reaction method and their dielectric properties and mechanical properties are investigated. It shows that the activation energy of oxygen vacancies is enhanced whereas the concentration of oxygen vacancies is reduced when Bi3+ ions are partially substituted by Nd3+ ions. The Cole-Cole fitting to the dielectric loss reveals a strong correlation among oxygen vacancies. The strong correlation reduces the activation energy of oxygen vacancies efficiently. Therefore, we conclude that the diluted oxygen vacancies concentration is the origin of the excellent fatigue resistance of Nd-modified Bi4Ti3O12 materials.