Effect of Lead Nickel Niobate Substitution on Phase Transitions of Lead Zirconate Ceramics Prepared by the Solid State Reaction Method

Abstract

The solid solution between the antiferroelectric, PbZrO3 (PZ), and relaxor ferroelectric, Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PNN), was synthesized by the columbite method. The phase structure and phase transition of Pb(Zr1-x(Ni1/3Nb2/3)xO3 (PZNN), where x = 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.50, were investigated. The samples were kept at the calcination temperature of 900°C for 4 h and at the sintering temperature of 1,150°C for 2 h. Phase formation and phase transition of PZNN were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal analysis, respectively. It was found that the structure of sintered pellets is orthorhombic for 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.10, rhombohedral for 0.20 ≤ x ≤ 0.30 and pseudo-cubic for x = 0.5. DSC measurement shows that in the antiferroelectric (AFE) phase – ferroelectric (FE) phase and FE to paraelectric (PE) phase; phase transformation temperatures decrease with increasing PNN concentration. The AFE–FE phase transformation was detected for compositions 0.00 £ x £ 0.08.