Solid-state synthesis and spark plasma sintering of SrZrO3 ceramics

SrZrO₃ powders are obtained by solid state reaction from SrCO₃ and ZrO₂ precursors, without involving intermediate calcination and grinding steps. The resulted powders are essentially within a single phase, with sub-micron average crystallite size. Pellets of these powders show a relatively poor sintering behavior, when fired up to 1600 °C. Alternatively, spark plasma sintering technique is used in order to obtain nearly 100% dense samples at the expense of excessive grain coarsening (i.e., up to 5 μm in diameter). Crystalline structure, composition and morphology of the specimens obtained in this work are investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy together with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.