Texture design for microwave dielectric (Ca0.7Nd0.3)0.87TiO3 ceramics through reactive-templated grain growth

Plate-like Ca3Ti2O7 (CT) and Nd2Ti2O7 (NT) particles were synthesized in molten salts and used as reactive templates for the preparation of highly textured (Ca0.7Nd0.3)0.87TiO3 bulk ceramics (CNT) with preferred pseudocubic 〈100〉 and 〈110〉 orientations, respectively. During flux growth CT and NT particles developed facets parallel to the pseudocubic {100} and {110} planes, respectively, in a perovskite unit cell, since those planes correspond to the interlayers of the layered perovskite-type crystal structures. Complementary reactants for the CNT stoichiometry were wet-mixed with the reactive templates and the slurries were tape-cast. Then stacked tapes were heat-treated for dense single-phase CNT ceramics with a distorted and A-site deficient regular perovskite-type structure. The CNT ceramics prepared with CT and NT reactive templates exhibited strong pseudocubic 100- and 110-family x-ray diffraction peaks, respectively, with other peaks drastically suppressed when non-perovskite sources were used as complementary reactants. The textured ceramics possess unique microstructures; as either parallel or obliquely stacked block structures with a pseudocubic {100} plane faceted. The pseudocubic {100}-and {110}-textured CNT ceramics exhibited ∼10 and ∼20% higher products of the dielectric quality factor and frequency, Q · f, respectively, than conventional ceramic sintered at the same temperature. When Q · f is compared based on the same grain size, the {100}-textured CNT exhibited 27% higher values than non-textured while relative permittivity and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency were of similar values. Simple geometrical relationships between electric field and penetrated pseudocubic {hk0}-type grain boundaries must lead to the reduced scattering and dielectric loss.