Effect of Zr+4 on mechanical and structural properties of BaFeO3−δ

BaFeO3−δ (BFO) and BaFe0.9Zr0.1O3−δ (BFZO) oxides were synthesized by sol–gel method and their mechanical properties in room temperature and 850 °C were investigated and compared. The Rietveld refinement of the sintered samples at 1300 °C/10 h revealed that Zr-doping stabilized the symmetric cubic structure in BFZO from a multiphase (hexagonal and cubic) crystal structure in BFO. The room temperature non-linear stress–strain curves of BFO revealed its ferroelastic behavior due to the ferroelastic domain stitching under stress. In contrary, BFZO at room temperature and both BFO and BFZO at 850 °C exhibit linear elastic behavior as they have symmetric cubic crystal structure. The high temperature mechanical testings show that Zr-doping can also improve creep resistance of BFO.