Synthesis and characterization of Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.9Zr0.1O3 ceramics by hydrothermal method

Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.9Zr0.1O3 (BCTZO) ceramics were prepared from nanopowders using a hydrothermal method. The phases and microstructures of samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD results indicate that the ceramic samples have a pseudo-cubic phase structure with a small CaTiO3 phase observed at 1100 and 1200 °C. The samples were dense and the average grain sizes increase with increasing sintering temperature and were 0.89, 3.53 and 12.09 μm for sintering temperatures at 1100, 1200 and 1300 °C, respectively. The dielectric constants, ferroelectric hysteresis loops and piezoelectric strain factors of BCZTO ceramics were also investigated. The results show that their values increase with the increase in average grain size of ceramic samples.