Optimisation of the Zr:Ti ratio in bulk lead zirconate titanate for templated grain growth using BaTiO 3 seeds

Presented here is a proof of concept demonstration of the templated grain growth (TGG) process for the development of [001] c fibre-textured Pb(Zr x Ti 1- x )O 3 (PZT) ceramics. BaTiO 3 platelets (5 and 10 vol.%) were selected to seed growth of highly oriented PZT grains resulting in texture fractions as high as 94%. The TGG process in PZT was observed to be critically dependent upon the addition of excess PbO liquid phase and may be driven by BaTiO 3 dissolution into the matrix. Solid solution incorporation of BaTiO 3 during sintering resulted in a structural shift away from the PZT morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) and a decrease in Curie temperature ( T C ) by ~ 40 °C which still exceeded > 300 °C. Modification of the Zr:Ti ratio in untextured ceramic analogues was explored as a strategy to tailor dielectric, ferroelectric, and electromechanical properties. An initial PZT matrix composition of Pb(Zr 0.56 Ti 0.44 )O 3 resulted in a final bulk Pb 0.947 Ba 0.053 (Zr 0.531 Ti 0.469 )O 3 ceramic having MPB-like properties of d 33 = 453 pC/N, tan δ = 0.017, T C = 340 °C, and E c = 9.3 kV/cm, which was observed to be similar to commercial ‘soft’ PZT-5A1.