Liquid Phase Sintering of Nicuzn Ferrite and Its Magnetic Properties
Liquid Phase Sintering of Nicuzn Ferrite and Its Magnetic Properties
Liquid Phase Sintering of Nicuzn Ferrite and Its Magnetic Properties
Abstract
The influence of glass additives on the densification, microstructural evolution and magnetic properties of NiCuZn ferrites were
investigated. Two glass systems including PbO?SiO 2 and PbO?B 2 O 3 were used to reduce the sintering temperature of a NiCuZn ferrite.
The PbO?SiO 2 glass system was shown to be an effective additive to obstruct the grain boundary movement and prevent the abnormal
grain growth. In addition, it significantly lowers the sintering temperature of the ferrite. Ferrites sintered with PbO?SiO 2 have higher
resistivity, higher Q and higher Hc compared with those of PbO?B 2 O 3 systems. These results also indicated that the ratio of modifier to
glass-former did not significantly change the densification behavior, microstructural evolution and magnetic properties of the NiCuZn
ferrite. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Soft ferrite; Liquid phase sintering; Magnetic properties
1. Introduction
The surface mounting devices, such as multilayer chip
beads or inductors, have been developing rapidly for
electronic applications. Among available materials, polycrystalline ferrites have been used widely because of their
high permeability in the RF frequency region, high electrical resistivity, and environmental stability [1]. Ag is
suggested as an internal electrode for multilayer ferrites
due to its high conductivity that provides the components
with a higher quality factor, Q. Also, the Ag paste has
much lower cost compared with that of the Ag / Pd paste.
Therefore, the ferrite is required to sinter at temperatures
below 9508C. There has been a growing interest in NiCuZn
ferrites for the applications of producing the multilayertype chips mainly because these oxides can be sintered at
relatively low temperatures with a wide range of composition [2]. In addition, NiCuZn ferrites have better
properties at high frequencies than MnZn ferrite and lower
densification temperatures than NiZn ferrites.
Several approaches were attempted to reduce the sintering temperature, including (a) the reduction of the particle
size of the ferrite [3], (b) the incorporation of dopants into
the ferrite lattice [4], and (c) the usage of sintering
additives which change the sintering mechanism (liquid
phase sintering) [2,5]. Among them, the use of sintering
additives was found to be an effective method in practical
*Corresponding author.
2. Experimental procedure
A NiCuZn ferrite (Ni / Cu / Zn50.38:0.12:0.50) prepared
from the solid state reaction was used during this study.
The powders have a particle size of 0.73 mm from SEM
micrographs and surface area of 7.60 m 2 g 21 using BET
method. The 2PbO?SiO 2 , 5PbO?SiO 2 , 2PbO?B 2 O 3 , and
5PbO?B 2 O 3 glasses were prepared by mixing stoichiometric amounts of PbO and SiO 2 or B 2 O 3 (Fisher Scientific, reagent grade) for 24 h in a vibratory mill. After
drying, these powders were transferred to a Pt crucible,
reacted at 8508C, and quenched. The powder was then
dry-milled and sieved though a 325 mesh screen.
(Ni 0.38 Cu 0.12 Zn 0.50 )Fe 2 O 4 powders were mixed with 3
1466-6049 / 01 / $ see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S1466-6049( 01 )00123-4
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Y.-R. Wang, S.-F. Wang / International Journal of Inorganic Materials 3 (2001) 1189 1192
the densification behavior of NiCuZn ferrite. The microstructure study indicates that an uniform microstructure
with a grain size ranging from 1 to 2 mm was observed for
NiCuZn ferrites sintered with 2PbO?SiO 2 or 5PbO?SiO 2
glasses. However, for ferrites sintered with 2PbO?B 2 O 3 , or
5PbO?B 2 O 3 , the microstructures showed a rapid grain
growth for a limited number of grains up to (15 mm)
much larger than the average grain size population (of the
order of 1.5 mm). It seems that PbO?SiO 2 glass is an
effective additive to obstruct the grain boundary motion
and prevent the exaggerated grain growth.
Figs. 2 and 3 depict the initial permeability ( mi ) and
quality factors (Q) at 1 MHz for ferrite sintered with
various fluxes at the temperatures ranging from 850 to
10508C. The results revealed that the initial permeability
increases with the sintering temperature for all cases. It
Fig. 1. Densification curves for the (Ni 0.38 Cu 0.12 Zn 0.50 )Fe 2 O 4 powder sintered with different flux systems.
Y.-R. Wang, S.-F. Wang / International Journal of Inorganic Materials 3 (2001) 1189 1192
1191
Fig. 3. Quality factor (Q 1 ) at 1 MHz for ferrite with various fluxes sintered at the temperatures ranging from 850 to 10508C.
4. Summary
The PbO?SiO 2 glass system is an effective additive to
obstruct the grain boundary movement and can prevent the
exaggerated grain growth for (Ni 0.38 Cu 0.12 Zn 0.50 )Fe 2 O 4
ferrite. It reduces the sintering temperature of the ferrite
and results in ceramics of high Q and larger Hc . The
results also showed that the ratio of modifier to glassformer (i.e. PbO:SiO 2 , or PbO:B 2 O 3 ratio) did not sig-
Table 1
Magnetic parameters obtained from hysteresis loops for ferrites sintered with various flux systems at 10008C
Sample
Sintering
temperature
Density
(g cm 23 )
Br (G)
Bs (G)
Hc (Oe)
3 wt% 2PbO?SiO 2
3 wt% 5PbO?SiO 2
3 wt% 2PbO?B 2 O 3
3 wt% 5PbO?B 2 O 3
Pure ferrite
10008C / 2 h
10008C / 2 h
10008C / 2 h
10008C / 2 h
12508C / 2 h
5.04
5.04
5.06
4.99
4.94
3049
2957
2706
2807
2060
3675
3635
3680
3696
4241
2.79
3.17
1.79
1.96
0.41
1192
Y.-R. Wang, S.-F. Wang / International Journal of Inorganic Materials 3 (2001) 1189 1192
nificantly change the densification behavior, microstructural evolution and magnetic properties of NiCuZn ferrite.
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