# Susceptible Antiferroelectric/Ferroelectric Transitions in Silver Niobate-Based Ceramics Induced by Manual Mechanical Processing

## TL;DR

This paper shows that mechanical processing can change the structure of silver niobate ceramics, affecting their properties.

## Contribution

The study reveals that manual mechanical processing can induce reversible phase transitions in AgNbO3-based ceramics.

## Key findings

- Manual polishing/grinding can induce a phase transition from antiferroelectric to ferroelectric in AgNbO3-based systems.
- Heat treatment can reverse the phase transition, linked to a metastable antiferroelectric phase.
- Processing parameters are crucial for understanding structure–property relationships in these ceramics.

## Abstract

It is common that the as-sintered bulk ceramics or powders
undergo
mechanical and/or heat treatment for further investigating the structure
or properties. However, if their structures change during these procedures,
it would mislead their structure–properties relation and subsequently
lead to the wrong design of the desired ceramic products. In this
work, we reported the mechanical/heat treatment effect on the structures
of AgNbO3-based antiferroelectric/ferroelectric (AFE/FE)
materials. The results revealed that the structure of AgNbO3-based systems with chemical compositions close to/in the AFE/FE
phase boundary strongly depends on the history of polishing/grinding
and/or annealing processing. Manual polishing/grinding (or milling)
ceramic bulk/powders can induce a phase transition from AFE­(Pbcm) to FE­(R3c), and
the transition can be reversed via the heat treatment, which is intimately
related to a temperature-driven phase transformation having a metastable
AFE phase. Our finding thus provides new insight into phase transitions
in AgNbO3-based systems, suggesting that the proper parameters
of processing need to be considered to enable the development of an
understanding of structure–property relationships in ceramic
materials.