Journal of Materials Science, Vol.47, No.8, 3669-3673, 2012
Spark-plasma-sintering temperature dependence of structural and piezoelectric properties of BNT-BT0.08 nanostructured ceramics
(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3 doped with 8 mol% BaTiO3 powder prepared by sol-gel was compacted and sintered by spark-plasma-sintering method. The influence of spark-plasma-sintering temperature on the densification and piezoelectric properties of these ceramics was studied. Starting from BNT-BT0.08 powder gel with a microstructure consisting of particles with average size of 50 nm, ceramics with grain size of 60-90 nm and density of about 98.9-99.6% of the theoretical density were obtained by spark-plasma-sintering at 800-900 A degrees C. Increasing the sintering temperature by SPS from 800 to 900 A degrees C lead to the increase of d (33), k (p), epsilon (33) (T) and, decrease of Q (m). Typical d (33) and k (p) values of BNT-BT0.08 ceramics sintered by spark-plasma-sintering at 900 A degrees C were 8 and 0.029, respectively.