Study of Electrical Properties of Lead-free BCZT Ceramic (Ba0.80Ca0.20Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 at Different Sintering Temperatures

There is a tremendous growth in the demand for high performance lead-free ceramics due to environmental issues. In the present work, the traditional solid-state sintering technique at different sintering temperatures, namely, 1380, 1400 and 1420 oC has been employed to prepare lead-free (Ba0.80Ca0.20Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 ceramics. Detailed XRD analysis suggests pure perovskite structure for the ceramic synthesized at higher sintering temperature 1420 oC without any impurities. Density measurement using Archimedes principle shows a trend of increased densification with increasing sintering temperature. Room temperature frequency dependent dielectric constant study indicates high value of dielectric constant (εrt= 2665-2490) in the frequency range100 Hz-100 kHz for the ceramic sintered at 1420 oC. Temperature dependent dielectric studies at constant frequency (10 kHz) indicates that ceramic prepared at 1420 oC has high Curie temperature Tc =77 oC. Ferroelectric properties of the ceramics are enhanced by raising the sintering temperature from 1380 to 1420 oC with higher spontaneous polarisation of Ps = 7.68 μC/cm2 corresponding to 1420 oC ceramic. The reasonably high values of Curie temperature, room temperature dielectric constant in the large frequency range and improved ferroelectric properties of the ceramic prepared at 1420 oC indicate that this ceramic can be a good candidate for being developed into commercially viable lead-free ferroelectric material.