**4. Summary**

For texture development of BaZrO3-modified Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT–BZ) ceramics, plate-like Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT) template was first synthesized from bismuth layer-structured ferroelectric Bi4.5Na0.5Ti4O15 (BNT4) precursor through a TMC method. The BNT template produced by TMC method presented high aspect ratio plate-like grains that inherit the morphology of the BNT4 precursor particles and are different from the CMO-synthesized BNT particles that exhibit round-type grains of submicron size. The TMC-synthesized BNT particles show strong (*h*00) intensity peaks signifying (100) preferred grain orientation; however, the CMO-synthesized particles exhibit (110) intense peak, revealing a random orientation. The structural character‐ istics observed in XRD analysis further inveterate the TEM analysis, verifying the grain growth along (100) plane for TMC process and along (110) plane for the same BNT composition produced through CMO route. The BNT templates produced by TMC process are very effective in the texture engineering of BNT–BZ ceramics. A high Lotgering factor (*F* = 83%) was observed in BNT–BZ ceramics textured with 15 wt% of BNT templates. Furthermore, room temperature dielectric constant increased by 25%, maximum polarization 34%, and fieldinduced strain response by 100%. The results obtained in this work shows that BNT templates play an important role in the texture engineering of BNT–BZ ceramics and improving the dielectric, ferroelectric, and field-induced strain properties.
