Spark Plasma Sintering of double perovskite Ba2MgWO6 doped with Ce3+: Part I - Structural and microstructural characterizations

Abstract Ba2MgWO6 (BMW) translucent ceramics undoped or doped with Ce3+ were prepared by using Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. Powders with submicrometric particles diameter and composed of pure BMW cubic phase were fabricated by simple solid-state reaction from primary powders. This work highlights that thermomechanical schedule applied during sintering must be carefully chosen as BMW tends to decompose for temperatures above 1400 °C. As a result, dense and translucent undoped BMW and BMW:Ce3+ ceramics were obtained at only 1350 °C for 5 min under 50 MPa of uniaxial pressure. Such lanthanide-free ceramics with high density (i.e. 6.8–7.2 g/cm−3) could be envisaged as new and more environmentally-sustainable scintillators for medical imaging.