Effect of different templates on microstructure of textured Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–BaTiO3 ceramics with RTGG method

One-dimensional needle-like KSr2Nb5O15 (KSN) and two-dimensional plate-like Bi2.5Na3.5Nb5O18 (BNN) particles were used as templates to fabricate grain-oriented Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–BaTiO3 (NBTBT) ceramics by reactive-templated grain growth. The effects of the template concentration on the microstructure and orientation of NBTBT ceramics were investigated, and the mechanism of grain growth was discussed. The results show that NBTBT textured ceramics cannot be obtained with KSN template, since the needle-like KSN particles were aligned randomly along the tape casting direction. Ceramics contain perovskite NBTBT and tungsten–bronze-type KSN phase. Some cucurbit-like KSN grains resulted from the defects of needle-like KSN templates were detected. Textured ceramics with orientation factor more than 60% were obtained successfully when the plate-like BNN was used as templates. The results show that the texture fraction of NBTBT textured ceramics increase with increasing the content of BNN. The textured ceramics exhibited {h 0 0} preferred orientation have brick wall microstructure with strip-like grains aligning in the same plane as the casting plane. The reaction and crystal formation of textured NBTBT ceramics with plate-like BNN templates are by diffusion–recrystallization process. Finally the selecting rules of suitable templates are proposed.