Highly textured Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 ceramics prepared by reactive template grain growth process

< 001 > textured Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 (BCZT) lead-free ceramics were fabricated by reactive-templated grain growth (RTGG) method using plate-like BaTiO3 templates. Aligned plate-like BaTiO3 particles grew at the expense of equiaxed matrix powder with random orientation with increasing sintering temperature, resulting in development of texture. Highly textured (texture fraction f=0.98) BCZT ceramics were prepared at first with a RTGG process. Development of texture was investigated during sintering. The influence of templates content on texture fraction and electrical properties of the textured BCZT ceramics were also studied. The textured ceramics shows high piezoelectric coefficient (d(33)=455 pC/N) and dielectric properties (epsilon(r)similar to 3500, tan delta similar to 0.010). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.