A Study on Densification and Grain Growth of Ba(Ce,Zr)O<sub>3</sub> Prepared by a Two-Step Sintering

Abstract

Ultra-fine powder of Ba (Ce,Zr)O3 was prepared by a sol-gel method using metal nitrate salts as pre-cursor. The powder was compacted using hydraulic press with pressure of 45 kg/m2 for 5 min to produce four different pellets. They were sintered at two temperature profiles using two-step sintering (TSS) process. The first temperature profile was fixed at T1 = 1450°C and the second temperature profile was varies from T2 = 1300°C, 1350°C and 1400°C, respectively. For a comparison, the pellet was also sintered using conventional step sintering (CSS) with temperature of T = 1450°C. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images for the fracture surface showed that the grain growth for the pellet sintered at T2 = 1350°C was suppressed compared to others. Majority of it grain size was in the range of 100 to 390 nm. For densification study, all the pellets sintered using TSS profile exhibited lower density than CSS method. Even though TSS method can retard the grain growth but in terms of densification, CSS method is better than TSS.