Morphology control in BiFeO3: A spark plasma sintering study
METERA J. 1, ZHOU E. 1, GARAY J. 1, GRAEVE O. 1
1 University of California San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Morphology control in sintered ceramics is generally difficult to achieve because of the intergranular diffusion that occurs during conventional sintering. However, for some materials reducing sintering time can minimize diffusion between grains, thus preserving the original particle morphology. For this purpose, spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a well-known rapid sintering technique that benefits the formation of metastable microstructures of unique grain morphologies. In this study, bismuth ferrite particles of cubic morphology were examined to determine the feasibility of the SPS technique to preserve the cubic shapes of the particles during sintering. The powders were synthesized using a hydrothermal synthesis method using bismuth and iron nitrates as the chemical precursors. Those precursors were added to a potassium hydroxide solution of differing concentrations to influence the morphology of the particles. The sintered specimens were compared based on morphology control from the hydrothermal synthesis. X-ray diffraction was used to confirm phase purity of the powders and sintered specimens. Scanning electron microscopy was used to confirm the grain morphology after sintering through surface and cross-sectional imaging.