Development of textured bismuth titanate piezoelectric ceramics

Textured polycrystalline functional ceramics are attractive alternatives to single crystals as they have shown significantly higher performance compared to the untextured polycrystalline ceramics. Textured ceramics can be made by uniaxial hot pressing or by templated grain growth (TGG) technique. Development of textured microstructures by TGG depends on the availability of suitable crystals as seeding templates and well controlled processing techniques. In this study bismuth titanate (Bi4Ti3O12) seeds with anisotropic morphologies were prepared by hydrothermal and molten salt synthesis methods. Textured bismuth titanate ceramics were obtained by two techniques, SPS sintering and templated grain growth. The textured polycrystalline ceramic showed significantly high anisotropy in electronic properties near its Curie temperature.