Effects of sintering temperature on microstructure and electrical properties of 0.9Pb(Mg<inf>1/3</inf>Nb<inf>2/3</inf>)O<inf>3</inf>-0.1PbTiO<inf>3</inf>modified with CuO

Abstract

The structural, dielectric and ferroelectric properties of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.9Ti0.1O3(PMNT) ceramics prepared with CuO as a sintering aid at various sintering temperatures between 950 C and 1150 C are investigated. The lattice parameters slightly increase with the sintering temperature >1050 C. A significant increase in the grain size is observed when the sintering temperature is increased from 1000 C to 1050 C. The maximum dielectric constant reaches the highest value of ∼22,000 for the ceramic sintered at 1050 C. For the ceramics sintered at >1050 C, the temperature of maximum dielectric constant and the diffuseness parameters tend to increase with the increasing sintering temperature. The optimal sintering temperature for this ceramic is 1050 C, which displays significant improvements in ferroelectric properties at room temperature, i.e. the increase in the remanent polarization and the ferroelectric loop squareness© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.