Effect of BiFeO3 addition on Bi2O3–ZnO–Nb2O5 based ceramics

In this paper, low temperature sintering of the Bi2(Zn1/3Nb2/3)2O7 (β-BZN) dielectric ceramics was studied with the use of BiFeO3 as a sintering aid. The effects of BiFeO3 contents and the sintering temperature on the phase structure, density and dielectric properties were investigated. The results showed that the sintering temperature could be decreased and the dielectric properties could be retained by the addition of BiFeO3. The structure of BiFeO3 doped β-BZN was still the monoclinic pyrochlore phase. The sintering temperature of BiFeO3 doped β-BZN ceramics was reduced from 1000 °C to 920 °C. In the case of 0.15 wt.% BiFeO3 addition, the β-BZN ceramics sintered at 920 °C exhibited good dielectric properties, which were listed as follows: εr = 79 and tan δ = 0.00086 at a frequency of 1 MHz. The obtained properties make this composition to be a good candidate for the LTCC application.