The effect of texture on the properties of Bi3.15Nd0.85Ti3O12 ceramics prepared by spark plasma sintering

Bi3.15Nd0.85Ti3O12 ceramic, which is a three-layer ferroelectric Aurivillius phase, was prepared by spark plasma sintering. The effect of texture on the anisotropy of dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties was studied. X-ray diffraction showed that samples perpendicular to the hot-pressing direction had a-b-axis preferred texture, whereas, samples parallel to hot-pressing direction had c-axis preferred orientation. The dielectric constant, remanent polarization and piezoelectric constant of samples with orientation close to a-axis are larger than those of samples with orientation close to c-axis. Their Curie points are all about 410 °C.