Heterostructured Ceramic Materials Based on PZTN-CFO Compounds

Solid state process has been used to control the microstructure and to improve the densification and the interphase boundaries cohesion of heterostructured ceramics. In this work, synthesis, milling and sintering of the powders mixture, were optimized to achieve a proper dispersion of the magnetic phase (CoFe2O4) in highly densified ferroelectric matrix (Nb-doped PZT). The aim is that to increase the mechanical coupling and the percolation threshold by increasing the densification and reducing the magnetic grain size. The optimized microstructure showed a fully dense microstructure characterized by a bi-modal cobalt ferrite grain size distribution in the nanoscale. SEM-EDXS and XRD analysis have been used to study the microstructure after heat treatment and a simple equation - to quantify the PbO losses - has been deducted from the XRD analysis.