Effect of chemical composition on microstructural properties and sintering kinetics of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 powders

Barium strontium titanate powders with different Ba:Sr ratios were investigated to determine the influence of the initial composition of powder mixture on microstructural properties and sintering kinetics. It was determined that BaCO3 and SrCO3 react differently to mixing, resulting in Ba0.5Sr0.5CO3 in the sample with 80% Ba and different contents of Ba1- xSrxTiO3 in samples with 50% and 20% Ba. In addition, the morphology is also different, with higher Sr content leading to larger particles size and less agglomeration. The different chemical content of the initial powder mixture also has a marked impact on the sintering process: the onset of sintering shifts towards higher temperature with higher Sr content, while the average apparent activation energy of sintering is the highest for the sample with 80% Ba and the lowest for the mixture with 50% Ba. In addition, hexagonal-to-cubic phase transformation was observed in parallel with the sintering process, where the position of the phase transition shifts to lower temperatures with an increase in Sr content. This is consistent with the behavior of low-temperature phase transitions of BST. The phase transition was not observed in sintered samples, suggesting that there is a size-dependence of the phase transition temperature.