Abstract

The electrical and microstructural properties of (La1-xPrx)1/2Ba1/2MnO3 (x = 0.000, 0.167, 0.333, 0.500, 0.677, 0.833 and 1.000) compounds, prepared by the solid state reaction, have been investigated. The electrical property has been determined by using standard the four-point probe resistivity measurement with a temperature range of 30 K to 300 K. By increasing the Pr doping, the metal-insulator transition temperature (Tp) shifted to lower temperatures, which are 254, 248, 228, 220, 196, 180 and 158K for x = 0.000, 0.167, 0.333, 0.500, 0.677, 0.833 and 1.000, respectively. Using several theoretical models, it has been concluded that the metallic (ferromagnetic) part of the resistivity (ρ) (below TP) fits well with the equation ρ = ρ0 + ρ2.5T2.5, indicating that ρ0 is due to the importance of grain and domain boundary effects, a second term ~ ρ2.5T2.5 appears that might be attributed to electron-electron scattering. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs show the grains size decreases as the level of porosity increases, which contributes to the increase resistivity.