A brief review of the effect of grain size variation on the electrical properties of BaTiO3-based ceramics

Due to the wide range of applications of ceramics, interest in investigating all the parameters that influence the properties of these materials has constantly been on the increase. In the past fifty years, various studies were conducted on the effects of grain size on the properties of different ceramics. These researches provided evidence for a behavior shared by ceramics. In the present study, a brief report of the effect of grain size on the electrical properties of the BaTiO3-based ceramics, which are extensively used materials in electrical industries, is presented for the first time. As the range of electrical properties of this type of ceramics is quite extensive, this paper focuses on basic issues such as dielectric and piezoelectric properties alongside polarization of BT-based ceramics. The review demonstrates that despite the same behavior of these ceramics in terms of grain size alterations, there are still inevitable parameters in the course of experiments which can change this behavior. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.