Investigations on the effect of preparation conditions on AgNbO3 ceramics

AgNbO3 ceramic was found to be one of the candidate materials for lead-free piezoelectric materials. The processing and sintering procedures have detrimental effect on the characteristics of the ceramics. Ceramic pellets of silver niobate, AgNbO3 were prepared by solid-state reaction technique. To investigate the effect on the ceramic characteristics, two different sintering procedures were adopted. The crystallinity and surface morphology of the prepared samples were investigated by XRD and SEM techniques. The samples prepared by both the methods show orthorhombic structure at room temperature. Comparisons of lattice parameters, crystallite and grain sizes of AgNbO3 are reported. Frequency variations of dielectric constant (K), tangent loss (tan delta) and electrical conductivity (sigma) were measured at room temperature in the frequency range 1 Hz to 10 MHz. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.