4. Conclusi on
Porous PZT ceramics were prepared by using a novel TBAbased gel-casting method and sintered at different temperaFig. 5. Relative dielectric constant as a function of sintering temperature.
Fig. 6. Change of piezoelectric constant d33 and HFOM with sintering temperature.
Fig. 7. (a) Relative dielectric constant as a function of porosity and (b)
piezoelectric constant d33 as a function of grain size.
A.K. Yang et al. / Ceramics International 36 (2010) 549–554 553
tur es. It was found that sinter ing b ehavior had obvious effects
o n the micro structure and piezoel ectric properties . With the
incr ease o f sintering temper ature, the micro structure of the
sam ples change d accordi ngly and the poros ity decrease d which
led to increase in relative dielectr ic const ant hence lowered
HFO M. Furt hermore, the grain size increased with sintering
temper ature cont ributing to the value of piezoelect ric propert ies
such as d33 and HFOM. It could be inferred that the porosity
played a dominant role in determining the value of HFOM in
this study. As a result, it is practical and feasible to adjust
sintering temperature to tailor porosity, pore morphology and
hence piezoelectric properties as well as ensuring relatively
high anti-interference ability of the samples.