University of Leicester
Browse

Unfolding grain size effects in barium titanate ferroelectric ceramics.

Download (2.39 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2019-10-18, 14:53 authored by Y Tan, J Zhang, Y Wu, C Wang, V Koval, B Shi, H Ye, R McKinnon, G Viola, H Yan
Grain size effects on the physical properties of polycrystalline ferroelectrics have been extensively studied for decades; however there are still major controversies regarding the dependence of the piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties on the grain size. Dense BaTiO3 ceramics with different grain sizes were fabricated by either conventional sintering or spark plasma sintering using micro- and nano-sized powders. The results show that the grain size effect on the dielectric permittivity is nearly independent of the sintering method and starting powder used. A peak in the permittivity is observed in all the ceramics with a grain size near 1 μm and can be attributed to a maximum domain wall density and mobility. The piezoelectric coefficient d33 and remnant polarization Pr show diverse grain size effects depending on the particle size of the starting powder and sintering temperature. This suggests that besides domain wall density, other factors such as back fields and point defects, which influence the domain wall mobility, could be responsible for the different grain size dependence observed in the dielectric and piezoelectric/ferroelectric properties. In cases where point defects are not the dominant contributor, the piezoelectric constant d33 and the remnant polarization Pr increase with increasing grain size.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20130131110006) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51172128). The authors thank Prof. D. R. Chen of Shandong University for providing the hydrothermally-synthesized fine BaTiO3 powder. We would also like to thank China Scholarship Council for the financial support of 1 years research in the UK. One of the authors, V. Koval, acknowledges the support of the Grant Agency of Slovak Academy of Sciences through Grant No. 2/0057/14.

History

Citation

Scientific Reports, 2015, 5, Article number: 9953

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Engineering

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Scientific Reports

Publisher

Nature Research (part of Springer Nature)

eissn

2045-2322

Acceptance date

2015-03-24

Copyright date

2015

Available date

2019-10-18

Publisher version

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep09953

Notes

Supplementary Information Unfolding grain size effects in Barium Titanate ferroelectric ceramics https://media.nature.com/original/nature-assets/srep/2015/150507/srep09953/extref/srep09953-s1.doc

Language

en

Usage metrics

    University of Leicester Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC