Grain Growth Control in NaNbO3–SrTiO3 Ceramics by Mechanosynthesis and Spark

The combination of non-conventional methods of synthesis (mechanosynthesis) and sintering (spark plasma sintering, SPS) has been used for the first time to process dense, fine-grained ceramics of the (1x)NaNbO3–xSrTiO3 system. Dielectric properties have been measured across main phase transitions in the system for the submicrometer-structured ce-ramic materials processed by SPS, and are comparable with those of ceramics prepared by conventional sintering. This ap-proach thus allows grain growth to be controlled while retaining properties, and provides the possibility of processing ceramics of alkaline niobate-based perovskite solid solutions with a homo-geneous, fine-grained microstructure and good functionality. I