Controllable synthesis of (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 submicron sphere by hydroxide co-precipitation method. Issue 18 (15th December 2020) - Zhang, Qian
Abstract: The grain growth behavior during the ceramic sintering process is largely dependent on the size uniformity of precursory powders; therefore, a controllable synthesis of uniform precursory powders is a key to synthesize fine-grained dense ceramics. In this paper, we propose a simple and controllable hydroxide co-precipitation method to synthesize submicron spherical powders (Ba0.85 Ca0.15 )(Zr0·1 Ti0.9 )O3 (BCZT) with high uniformity. Molar ratio of (Ba + Ca)/(Zr + Ti), concentration of mineralizer and Zr(NO3 )4 ·5H2 O input proportion were found to be important factors in order to produce stoichiometric intermediates Ba0.85 Ca0·15 Zr0.1 Ti0·9 O2·92 (C2 O4 )0.08 powders, which then release CO and CO2 at ~456 °C and ~608 °C, individually, and eventually become pure phase of BCZT powders at ~696 °C during the calcination process. The phase-pure ceramics sintered at 1440 °C for 6 h displayed high recoverable energy storage performance (0.54 J/cm 3 ). The obtained uniformly distributed BCZT precursory powders could be used to prepare fine-grained BCZT ceramics for multipurpose applications.