Grain growth kinetics of textured-BaTiO3 ceramics

Textured BaTiO3 (BT) ceramics were fabricated by templated grain growth method. Effects of sintering conditions on the grain growth process of textured-BT ceramics were investigated. Orientation degree increased initially and then decreased with increasing soaking time. The ceramics were composed of equiaxed matrix grains and brick-like template particles. The brick-like particles aligned parallel to the casting direction by observing from SEM images. A (h00)-preferred orientation was confirmed by SAED and XRD patterns. Mechanism of grain growth in textured-BT ceramics was studied. Both consumption of matrix by templates and grain growth of templates determined the orientation degree of ceramics. The kinetic mechanism for grain orientation was also discussed by the simplified phenomenological kinetic equation. The average activation energies were 364 kJ/mol for matrix grain and 918 kJ/mol for template particle, respectively. Finally, a dense ceramic with 85% grain orientation was obtained after sintering at 1400 °C for 2 h.