PROCESSING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LEAD ZIRCONATE (PbZrO3) VIA MIX-OXIDE SINTERING ROUTE

Electro-ceramics have been extensively investigated over the last few decades due to their applications in telecommunication industry. Ceramists are still working hard to further improve the properties and reduce the size of the electro-ceramics components and cost of production via intelligent composition designing and processing. X-ray diffraction of as-mix-milled PbO and ZrO2, revealed the presence of PbO and ZrO2. Only PbZrO3 was identified by XRD in samples calcined at 800ºC. After sintering at 1150ºC, the major phase present on the surface of the sample was ZrO2 with trace amounts of PbZrO3, however, the bulk of the sample comprised of PbZrO3 only. About 2μm irregular-shaped grains were observed in the secondary electron scanning electron microscope images from the surface of the sample. The necking of these grains into one another revealed that the sintering temperature was higher than the optimum.