Study of structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of calcium titanate

Pristine CaTiO₃ (CTO) was prepared using conventional solid state reaction method. The formation of the compound was analyzed using RT X-ray Diffraction and the diffraction pattern was then refined using Rietveld Refinement via FULLPROF software and was found to fit in orthorhombic crystalline structure with space group Pbnm. The fit was in good agreement with the observed and calculated diffraction patterns of XRD with reliable goodness of fit. W-H plot was used to analyze average crystallite size along with the strain developed in the lattice. The average crystallite size was further used to calculate the dislocation density and number of crystallites in a given pellet. The 2D surface morphology of prepared samples was analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The Optical property of CTO was studied using UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy and optical band gap was found to be approximately similar (3.00eV) as that of literature. The ac conductivity was analyzed and the activation energies were calculated using Arrhenius relation. The results are discussed in detail.