Author(s)

M. D. Durruthy-Rodríguez, F. Calderón-Piñar, C. Malfatti, L. D. Pérez-Fernández

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The influence of dopant concentration on PZT (54/46) systems doped with lanthanum and/or niobium is studied. The sintering kinetics is presented for 1 wt% of the dopant used to find the main mechanism which drives this process. The results were compared with a phenomenological model for viscous sintering and solid state sintering. The exponent obtained for viscous sintering in PZTN, PLZT and PLZTN were 0.05, 0.01, and 0.23 respectively, which indicate that the process is reactive liquid in all cases. In the other hand, the exponent obtained for solid state sintering were 6.61, 5.68, and 1.23 respectively, and prevalence Ost-wald ripening and coalescence process together. Both dopants inhibit the grain growth and accelerate the sintering process, which increases with dopant concentration and the combination of both dopants. Shoro-hod-Olevsky model was applied for explain grain growth evolution, but does not coincide strictly with the applied model, which suggest that the process is very complex.

Sintering Kinetics, Porosity, Dopant Concentration

M. Durruthy-Rodríguez, F. Calderón-Piñar, C. Malfatti and L. Pérez-Fernández, "Sintering Kinetics of Soft-Doped PZT (54/46) Systems," Journal of Modern Physics, Vol. 2 No. 5, 2011, pp. 416-420. doi: 10.4236/jmp.2011.25051.