Synthesis and characterization of lanthanum doped strontiumtitanate by sol gel route

Abstract

The La doped SrTiO3 with varying stoichiometric compositions (La0.1Sr0.9TiO3, La0.02Sr0.98TiO3, La0.04Sr0.96TiO3, La0.06Sr0.94TiO3) has been successfully amalgamated using the Sol-Gel method which has not been used much for this particular ceramic. The LSTO samples under study have been subjected to structural, morphological and localized chemical analysis using XRD, SEM and EDS analysis respectively. The XRD studies pointed towards the single phase presence for all samples, same value of lattice parameter shows cubic structure and crystalline size and lattice parameter decreases w.r.t increment in lanthanum doping. The SEM studied showed the good morphological structure with average grain size of the particles around 2–3 μm. The SEM analysis of pallets made by Spark Plasma Sintering showed that with sintering 1200oC have less porosity and good compactness as compared to the pallet sintered at 1000oC. The EDS study was performed on one point at local areas of every sample, the measured La concentration which was almost the same the stoichiometric ratio for all value of x (x = 0.1, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06) in LaxSr1-xTiO3.