Low-temperature sintering of (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 ceramics and thick-films

This paper reports low-temperature sintering methods for the (Ba
0.85
Ca
0.15
)(Zr
0.1
Ti
0.9
)O
3
(50BCZT) ceramics and thick-films. A commercial borosilicate glass and Li
2
O have been investigated as sintering aids. Bulk ceramic samples with 1 wt% borosilicate glass and sintered at 1200 °C exhibited d
33
and k
eff
(effective electromechanical coupling coefficient) values of approximately 160 pC/N and 0.2 respectively, which were 35 % and 54 % of values measured on ceramic samples without glass addition and sintered at higher temperatures. Bulk ceramic samples with 0.6 wt% Li
2
O addition and sintered at 1100 °C exhibited d
33
and k
eff
values of about 130 pC/N and 0.16 respectively. 50BCZT thick-films with 0.6 wt% Li
2
O and sintered at 1100 °C exhibited d
31
values of about 70 pC/N, which reached 77 % of counterparts without addition and sintered above 1400 °C. This shows that the sintering temperature of 50BCZT can be reduced by more than 300 °C, thus making it compatible with the use of Ag-Pd as a co-sintered electrode, which is more cost-effective than Pt.