Control of powder morphology for texture enhancement of lead barium niobate ferroelectric ceramics

In this work, the influence of the powder particle morphology on the microstructural morphology and structural texture levels of tetragonal tungsten bronze Pb_0·56Ba_0·44Nb₂O₆ ceramics was investigated. Powders were obtained by solid state reaction synthesis with different aspect ratios and densified through biaxial hot forging. A texture diffractometer was used to investigate the preferential orientation of the crystallographic planes and their relation to the microstructural morphology of the hot forged samples. The results showed that the higher the particle aspect ratio before firing, the higher the structural texture level of the sample after hot forging process. The highest anisotropy of the dielectric properties was observed in the sample with enhanced texture. Therefore, control of the particle morphology of the lead barium niobate precursor powder is very useful for obtaining ceramics with high texture levels and desirable anisotropic properties.