Crystal Clamping in (Ba, Sr)TiO3 Borosilicate Glass Ceramics

Background: Perovskite glass-ceramics have attracted the attention of researchers and scientists due to their wide range of applications in energy storage devices, solar cells, photovoltaic cells, etc. Barium titanate is the first discovered perovskite glass-ceramics. After the discovery of barium titanate, several perovskite glass-ceramics have been discovered. Several substitutions have also been attempted for the progress of perovskites. Barium strontium titanate is one of the perovskite glass-ceramics in which few barium ions are replaced by strontium ions. The crystal clamping is also found in a few perovskite glass-ceramics, e.g., PbTiO3. Aims: In the present investigation, our focus is on the synthesis and crystallization behavior of barium strontium titanate borosilicate glass-ceramics in glass system 64[(Ba1-xSrx).TiO3]- 30[2SiO2.B2O3]-5[K2O]-1[La2O3] (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0). Methods: Synthesized glasses were characterized by differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. Results: The crystallization behavior showed the formation of major crystalline phase of BaTiO3/ BaSrTiO3/ Ba1.91Sr0.09TiO4/ SrTiO3 along with some pyrochlore phase of Ba2TiSi2O8/ Sr2TiSi2O8/ Ba2Ti2B2O9/ Sr2B2O5. The crystalline phase formation depends upon both composition and the crystallization process. The crystal clamping was attributed to synthesizing glass-ceramics samples during the crystallization. Conclusion: Bulk barium strontium titanate glass-ceramics were successfully prepared by the melt quench method. X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the formation of the major perovskite phase. During the crystallization of glasses, crystal clamping is attributed to the barium strontium titanate glass-ceramics.