Report n. 1 - Research project: "Origin of relaxor behaviour in Ba-based lead-free perovskites" - Preparation of ceramics of BaTiO3, zirconium-doped and niobium-doped BaTiO3 with compositions: BaZrxTi1-xO3, x = 0; 0.10; 0.20; 0.40; Ba1-x/2?x/2(Ti1-xNbx)O3, x = 0.025, 0.05, 0.07, 0.10, 0.15

According to the working programme, the Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy (CNR-ICMATE, former CNR-IENI), Genoa, Italy, is in charge of the production (preparation and characterisation) of several BaTiO3-based ceramics for the WP1 "Production of Ba-based ceramic compositions" within the Project "Origin of relaxor behaviour in Ba-based lead-free perovskites". Dense ceramics were prepared by a conventional ceramic process. Powders of pure barium titanate (BT), Zr-doped, Nb-doped BT with the compositions defined above were prepared by solid-state reaction. The powders were compacted by cold isostatic pressing and the resulting cylindrical pellets sintered in air and characterised by x-ray diffractometry and scanning electron microscopy; samples density was also measured.