Fabrication of grain-oriented KSr2Nb5O15 ceramics by a brush technique

A novel process combining brush alignment and two-step sintering was explored to prepare grain-oriented KSr2Nb5O15 (KSN) ceramics. Needle-like KSN particles in slurry were aligned by the brush force along c-axis, which were synthesized by molten salt method. The sintered ceramics show an enhanced density of 96% and well-oriented structure. The Lotgering factor of green compact was 0.21 and increased to 0.95 for (00l), as calculated from X-ray diffraction. These results suggested that this process was a potential way for the preparation of dense grain-oriented ceramic materials.