Effects of nucleating additives on crystallization and properties of CaO-B2O3-SiO2 glass-ceramics

ZrO2, TiO2 and P2O5 were doped in CaO-B2O3-SiO2 glass-ceramics as nucleating additives. Effects of different nucleating additives on the phase separation and crystalline behaviors were investigated by using gradient temperature furnace, DTA and XRD. Then, sintering process of the glass-ceramics was investigated by testing sintering shrinkage, dielectric constant and loss. The experimental results shows that the glass-ceramics doped with nucleating additives represents higher crystallization, with ZrO2 as an exceptional effective dopant to promote the precipitation of wollastonite crystal. Finally, ZrO2 containing glass-ceramics was chosen to study the influence of sintering temperature and soaking time with the help of X-ray diffraction analysis and density measurement. The glass-ceramics can be well consolidated at 850 °C for 10 min, with low dielectric constant (5.87) and loss (3.21 × 10−4), which is desirable for LTCC application.