The role of γ-C₂H₅NO₂ as a new transient liquid phase in cold sintering process of BaTiO₃ composites

Dielectric materials, such as barium titanate (BT)-based materials, have excellent dielectric properties but require high temperatures (above 1300 °C) for ceramic fabrication, leading to high costs and energy loss. The cold sintering process (CSP) offers a solution to these issues and is gaining worldwide attention as an innovative fabrication route. In this work, we proposed an alternative organic ferroelectric phase, gamma-glycine (γ-GC), which acts as a transient liquid phase to fabricate high-density composites with barium titanate (BT) at low temperatures through CSP. Our findings show that the density of 15γ-GC/85BT reached 96.7%±1.6% when it was sintered at 120 °C for 6 h under 10 MPa uniaxial pressure. Scanning electron microscopy‒energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM‒EDS) mappings of the composite suggested that γ-GC completely underwent the precipitation–dissolution process and, therefore, filled between BT particles. Moreover, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the preservation of γ-GC without undesired phase transformation. In addition, the ferroelectric and dielectric properties of γ-GC/BT composites have been reported. The high dielectric constant (ε_r) was 3600, and the low dielectric loss (tanδ) was 1.20 at 200 °C and 100 kHz for the 15γ-GC/85BT composite. The hysteresis loop showed a remanent polarization (P_r) of 0.55 µC·cm⁻² and a coercive field (E_c) of 7.25 kV·cm⁻¹. Our findings reaffirmed that an organic ferroelectric material (γ-GC) can act as a transient liquid phase in a CSP that can successfully and sustainably fabricate γ-GC/BT composites at low temperatures while delivering outstandingly high performance.