Preparation of Ba_0.55Sr_0.4Ca_0.05TiO₃ Powders by Chemical Co-Precipitation for Low Temperature Sintering Ferroelectric Ceramics

Abstract

Ba_0.55Sr_0.4Ca_0.05TiO₃ (BSCT) powders were prepared both by chemical co-precipitation and solid-state reaction. The characterization by SEM reveals that BSCT powder(coded as BSCTc) prepared via chemical co-precipitation is with analogous sphericity mophlogy. Specific surface area analysis shows that BSCTc powder has much larger specific surface area of 15.32 m².g⁻¹ and smaller particle size of 0.085 μm. Different effects of the two BSCT powders on sintering behavior and microstructure of the ceramic were compared. The results show that the BSCTc powder possess higher sintering activity and can lead to lower densification temperature. When sintering aids (0.032 mol H₃BO₃-0.01 mol Li₂CO₃) was added, the sintering temperature of the BSCTc samples is 870°C and the fired density is 5.16 g.cm⁻³.

Keywords:

• Chemical co-precipitation
• strontium barium titanate (BST)
• low temperature co-firing ceramics (LTCC)
• sintering behaviour