High Purity, Crystallinity and Electromechanical Sensitivity of Lead-Free (Ba_0.85Ca_0.15)(Zr_0.10Ti_0.90)O₃ Synthesized...

A single (Ba_0.85Ca_0.15)(Zr_0.10Ti_0.90)O₃ phase material with a tetragonal structure is processed and synthesized with a modified Pechini method using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and glycerol as chelating and esterifying agents, respectively. The complete chemical transformation to the desired phase is achieved at 900 °C, which is 300 °C lower than conventional synthesis methods. Its consolidation, reaching up to 91% relative density, is carried out at 1400 °C. It is clearly demonstrated that the use of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and glycerol reagents is particularly beneficial for inducing a homogeneous grain size distribution (10 μm), which leads to very promising electromechanical properties (d₃₃ = 451 pC/N; d₃₁ = 160 pC/N; kp = 0.40; ε'33T = 4790 and Q_m = 358) of the densified system.