Low temperature sintering of Ba0.91Ca0.09Ti0.916Sn0.084O3 lead-free piezoelectric ceramics with the additives of ZnO and MnO2

The objective of this work is to lower the sintering temperature of Ba0.91Ca0.09Ti0.916Sn0.084O3 (BCTS) ceramics without sacrificing the piezoelectric performance. The low-temperature sintering technique has been conducted to prepare the BCTS ceramics by adding two additives of ZnO and MnO2. The ceramics endure a phase transition from a ferroelectric tetragonal phase to a pseudo-cubic relaxor ferroelectric with increasing MnO2 content. The addition of ZnO and MnO2 decreases the sintering temperature greatly, positively affecting their dielectric and piezoelectric properties. An enhanced electrical behavior of d(33)similar to 495 pC/N, k(p)similar to 43.0 %, epsilon(r)similar to 5429, and tan delta similar to 1.54 % has been observed in the ceramic with x = 0.1 wt% when sintered at similar to 1315 degrees C. As a result, the method to dope two additives of ZnO and MnO2 can effectively improve the piezoelectric properties of BaTiO3-based ceramics sintered at a low temperature.