Microwave sintered lead free ferroelectric BZT-50BCT ceramics with higher Curie temperature and improved dielectric properties

Lead free ferroelectric Ba(Zr 0.2 Ti 0.8 )O 3 –0.5(Ba 0.7 Ca 0.3 )TiO 3 ceramics with 95.2% of theoretical density and finer grains were obtained from chemically synthesized powders by microwave sintering at 1300 °C for 20 min. Microwave sintered ceramics showed higher density, higher Curie temperature (T c ) of 115 °C, higher dielectric permittivity of 2960, and minimized dielectric loss of 0.02. Whereas, the conventional sintered ceramics showed Curie temperature (T c ) of 95 °C, dielectric permittivity of 1813, and dielectric loss of 0.035. The higher Curie temperature along with improved dielectric properties might encourage practical applications of this composition as dielectric capacitors.