Effects of ball milling on microstructure and electrical properties of sol–gel derived (Bi0.5Na0.5)0.94Ba0.06TiO3 piezoelectric ceramics

A citrate sol–gel method was investigated for synthesizing lead-free piezoelectric compositions of (Bi0.5Na0.5)0.94Ba0.06TiO3 (BNT) and the effect of ball milling on the sintering, microstructure and electrical properties of BNT ceramics was emphasized. The thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction results show that crystalline powders with a single perovskite structure can be obtained when calcined at 600 °C for 3 h. The average particle size of as-calcined powder and electrical properties of sintered samples were obviously dependent on an additional ball milling. Because of well-dispersed superfine powders (∼100 nm), the BNT ceramics can be well densified at temperature 50 °C lower than that by mixed-oxide method and conventional sol–gel method and as a result exhibit enhanced electrical properties of a piezoelectric constant d33 ∼ 180 pC/N and a planar electromechanical coupling factor kp ∼ 0.29.