Processing and Application of Ceramics (Dec 2016)

Spark plasma sintering of hydrothermally synthesized bismuth ferrite

  • Zorica Branković,
  • Danijela Luković Golić,
  • Aleksandar Radojković,
  • Jovana Ćirković,
  • Damir Pajić,
  • Zorica Marinković Stanojević,
  • Junwei Xing,
  • Miladin Radović,
  • Guorong Li,
  • Goran Branković

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2298/PAC1604257B
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 4
pp. 257 – 264

Abstract

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Bismuth ferrite, BiFeO3 (BFO), powder was synthesized by hydrothermal method from Bi(NO3)3·5 H2O and Fe(NO3)3·9 H2O as precursors. The synthesized powder was further sintered using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The sintering conditions were optimized in order to achieve high density, minimal amount of secondary phases and improved ferroelectric and magnetic properties. The optimal structure and properties were achieved after spark plasma sintering at 630 °C for 20 min, under uniaxial pressure of 90 MPa. The composition, microstructure, ferroelectric and magnetic properties of the SPS samples were characterized and compared to those of conventionally sintered ceramics obtained from the same powder. Although the samples sintered using conventional method showed slightly lower amount of secondary phases, the spark plasma sintered samples exhibited favourable microstructure and better ferroelectric properties.

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