A novel low temperature sintering process for PMnN-PZT ceramics

Samples with the composition of 0.07Pb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.468PbZrO3–0.462PbTiO3 was prepared in this study. A novel process was adapted to lower the sintering temperature without properties deterioration. The sintering process includes a vacuumed heating stage, a air-venting heating stage, and a final sintering at 1050 °C with certain holding time without PbO compensating atmosphere. The influence of holding time at the final sintering stage on the characteristics of the ceramics was studied. The air-venting stage caused a large shrinkage (about 10%) and then slowing down the shrinking rate when the sample was heated up from 800 to 1050 °C. The relationships between the crystalline characteristics and physical properties, such as microstructure, the mechanical quality factor (Qm), and electromechanical coupling factor (kp), are discussed in this paper.