Abstract

The effects of time and temperature of sintering on microstructural characteristics of barium—titanate were investigated in this paper. Microstructural investigation have been done by optical microscopy using quantitative analysis methods and SEM microscopy. The specimens were prepared from high purity BaTiO₃ powders with 0.10% CeO₂ and 0.14% MnCO₃ and sintered at various temperatures ranged from 1190 °C to 1370 °C, for different times. All the samples were examined by quantitative microstructural analysis and parameters related to the grain size and porosity have been determined such as: section area (A), perimeter (Lp), form factor (f), numerical density (NA) and volume fraction (Vv) of pores.

The results have shown that the grain sizes increase with the increase of sintering temperature, but with different intensity depending on time of sintering. For two different times of sintering, the critical sintering temperature has been determined.

During the process of sintering although the pore sizes increase, the reduction on Na and Vv occurred. The reduction of Lp parameter value and the growth of f parameter pointed out the agglomeration of pores as the sintering temperatures are raised.

The mathematical modelling method has been used to, discuss the experimental results. A cumulative density function is proposed for interpretation of the results obtained in this study. A great extent of agreement between theoretical and experimental results pointed out the beneficial use of this method in microstructural investigation of ceramic materials.

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