Low temperature sintering kinetics of BaO-0.15ZnO-4TiO2 dielectric ceramic in the presence of a liquid phase

The influence of Li2O-B2O3-SiO2 glass (LBS) on the activation energy, phase composition, reaction mechanisms, and microstructure of the BaO-0.15ZnO-4TiO2 ceramics (Ba-Zn-Ti) were investigated to understand the mechanism of the sintering kinetic. The results reveal that the sintering process of the Ba-Zn-Ti significantly accelerated at a low temperature even with a higher activation energy, due to the reaction of Ba-Zn-Ti and LBS caused by the existence of liquid phase, which provides extra energy at the early stage of sintering, called reactive liquid-phase sintering. The sintering temperature of Ba-Zn-Ti significantly dropped from 1150 °C to 875 °C attribute to the presence of liquid phase caused by LBS, and obtained excellent dielectric microwave properties.