Structural and dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 synthesized by sol-gel method

CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) nanomaterials were synthesized using the low-cost facile sol-gel technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the cubic structure of the prepared sample. Scherrer's formula and the W-H (Williamson-Hall) plot was used to calculated the average crystallite size of the prepared sample and it was found to be 27 nm and 31.3 nm, respectively, while the strain created in the lattice is 5.008 x 10(-4). Based on the absorbance plot, the band-gap (E-g) of the sample was determined using Tauc's plot and it was found out to be 2.74 eV. The frequency dependence of dielectric permittivity (epsilon) and tangent loss (tan delta) of CCTO was analyzed at different temperature range from 300 K to 663 K over a frequency range from 10 Hz to 1 MHz. epsilon and tan delta decrease monotonically in entire frequency range and an anomalous frequency-dependent behavior was observed at different temperatures. High epsilon (in the range of 10(4)) was found out at lower frequency range. Electrical conductivity was also analyzed in range of frequencies and temperature, it was found out that in higher region of frequency conductivity slightly increases. The room temperature values of epsilon, tan delta and conductivity was 7.5 x 10(3), 1.5 and 0.4 x 10(-5) Omega(-1) m(-1), respectively. The reduction in E-g is achieved which was the major concern in this work. Furthermore, we have extensively studied the epsilon along with tan delta and ac conductivity for electronic application usage. According to these observations, CCTO is particularly prepared so that it could be suitable for microelectronic applications due to its high epsilon and low tan delta.