Relações estrutura: propriedades como subsídio à elucidação do diagrama de fases do sistema ferroelétrico (Pb,Ca)TiO3

Abstract

Solid solutions with perovskite structure, especially lead-based oxides, have been developed and investigated as single crystal and/or polycrystal ceramics since the midtwentieth century, but aspects of phase diagram of some of these systems remain controversial. Existing literature proposes, for instance, a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) for the PbTiO3-CaTiO3 ferroelectric system, in the region of concentration Pb/Ca~1.This study has investigated the crystal structure of ferroelectric ceramic systems Pb1- xCaxTiO3 (or PCT) (x = 0.24, 0.35, 0.475, 0.50, 0.55 and 1.00) using structural refinement of powder X-ray diffraction profiles, as a function of temperature. The Rietveld method was used and the convergence parameters of the structural refinement within a single phase were compared, considering different space groups among those described in literature for every composition. The assessment of macroscopic properties such as electrical permittivity, pyroelectric, ferroelectric and thermal expansion was also performed as a function of temperature and/or frequency for the construction of structure-property relationships, in order to determine the best symmetry for each composition and the phase diagram of polycrystalline PCT. At room temperature, the structural refinement analyses for ceramics with x = 0.24 and 0.35 showed tetragonal symmetry (P4mm), such as the PbTiO3, and for x ≥ 0.475 the convergence parameters indicated only one phase with orthorhombic centrosymmetric space group (Pbnm), typical of CaTiO3, as the best. For temperatures between 150 and 570 K, the crystallographic phase transition (tetragonal - cubic) was observed in only one composition, with x = 0.35. The space group Pbnm remained as the most suitable for compositions with x ≥ 0.475 across the temperature range studied, though variations of lattice parameters and/or unit cell volume were observed. Previous studies have proposed phase transitions for this system that are consistent with the variations observed, but those studies were performed by optical birefringence characterization in single crystals or by simulations based on the results of infrared spectroscopy. This is the first time that structural changes are observed as a function of temperature for the concentrations investigated. Such variations were therefore associated to phase transitions whose symmetries are represented by the XRD profiles of perovskite with super lattice reflections, closer to the Pbnm space group. These phases could not be distinguished, however, from Pbnm, probably because of the intrinsic limitations of structural characterization techniques used in this work. Furthermore, the results of the ferroelectric and pyroelectric characterization were not conclusive, mainly due to their dependence on the samples history, but the combination of electrical permittivity and thermal expansion characterizations with the structural refinements proved to be an important tool for elucidating the morphotropic phase boundary of this system. Based on these results, this work proposes a complement to the phase diagram of the Pb1-xCaxTiO3 polycrystaline systems in which phase transitions were characterized by different techniques.