The dielectric and luminescence properties of the 0–3 type BaTiO3–CaTiO3:Pr3+ composite ceramics prepared by cold sintering assistance

Abstract

In this work, the cold sintering assisted process was utilized to fabricate dense 0–3 type (1-x)BaTiO3-xCaTiO3:Pr3+ ((1-x)BT-xCT:Pr3+, x = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) binary composite ceramics. Under the combined action of uniaxial pressure and temperature, CT:Pr3+ has been successfully integrated with BT to form the preliminary BT-CT:Pr3+ composites during cold sintering. It is found that the cold sintering could increase the grain size a little, and annealing at 900 °C significantly promotes the grain size. The prepared (1-x)BT-xCT:Pr3+ composite ceramics have a pure phase of CT:Pr3+, which is difficult to prepare using high temperature solid reaction method when x < 0.23. It is found that all the composite ceramics exhibit excellent ferroelectric properties. Furthermore, a strong photoluminescence, photo-stimulated luminescence and thermal luminescence properties have been obtained. Present study illustrates a potential approach to combine luminescent and piezoelectric properties into the ferroelectric-based composite ceramics by the cold sintering assisted sintering.