Chemical Synthesis, Sintering and Piezoelectric Properties of Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Zr 0.1 Ti 0.9 O 3 Lead‐Free Ceramics

The preparation of Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Zr 0.1 Ti 0.9 O 3 (BCZT) powders by wet chemical methods has been investigated, and the powders used to explore relationships between the microstructure and piezoelectric properties ( d 33 coefficient) of sintered BCZT ceramics. Sol–gel synthesis has been shown to be a successful method for the preparation of BCZT nanopowders with a pure tetragonal perovskite phase structure, specific surface area up to 21.8 m 2 /g and a mean particle size of 48 nm. These powders were suitable for the fabrication of dense BCZT ceramics with fine‐grain microstructures. The ceramics with the highest density of 95% theoretical density (TD) and grain size of 1.3 μm were prepared by uniaxial pressing followed by a two‐step sintering approach which contributed to the refinement of the BCTZ microstructure. A decrease in the grain size to 0.8–0.9 μm was achieved when samples were prepared using cold isostatic pressing. Using various sintering schedules, BCZT ceramics with broad range of grain sizes (0.8–60.5 μm) were prepared. The highest d 33 = 410.8 ± 13.2 pC/N was exhibited by ceramics prepared from sol–gel powder sintered at 1425°C, with the relative density of 89.6%TD and grain size of 36 μm.