Synthesis and thermal expansion hysteresis of Ca1-xSrxZr4P6O24

The low thermal expansion ceramic system, Ca1-xSr{x}Zr4P6O24, for the compositions with x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1 was synthesized by solid-state reaction. The sintering characteristics were ascertained by bulk density measurements. The fracture surface microstructure examined by scanning electron microscopy showed the average grain size of 2.47 μm for all the compositions. The thermal expansion data for these ceramic systems over the temperature range 25–800°C is reported. The sinterability of various solid solutions and the hysteresis in dilatometric behaviour are shown to be related to the crystallographic thermal expansion anisotropy. A steady increase in the amount of porosity and critical grain size with increase in x is suggested to explain the observed decrease in the hysteresis.