Highly textured Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Ti 0.90 Zr 0.10 O 3 ceramics prepared by reactive template grain growth process

Abstract 〈001〉 textured Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Ti 0.90 Zr 0.10 O 3 (BCZT) lead-free ceramics were fabricated by reactive-templated grain growth (RTGG) method using plate-like BaTiO 3 templates. Aligned plate-like BaTiO 3 particles grew at the expense of equiaxed matrix powder with random orientation with increasing sintering temperature, resulting in development of texture. Highly textured (texture fraction f =0.98) BCZT ceramics were prepared at first with a RTGG process. Development of texture was investigated during sintering. The influence of templates content on texture fraction and electrical properties of the textured BCZT ceramics were also studied. The textured ceramics shows high piezoelectric coefficient ( d 33 =455 pC/N) and dielectric properties ( e r ~3500, tan δ ~0.010).