Low-temperature sintered 0.5Pb(Ni<sub>1/3</sub>Nb<sub>2/3</sub>)O<sub>3</sub>-0.16PbZrO<sub>3</su b>-0.34PbTiO<sub>3</sub> piezoelectric textured ceramics by Li<sub>2</sub>CO<sub>3</sub> addition

Abstract

BaTiO3(BT)-templated 0.5Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O-3-0.16PbZrO(3)-0.34PbTiO(3) with 0.2 wt% Li2CO3 (PNN-PZT + LC) ceramics were successfully sintered at temperatures less than 1050 degrees C. Their structural, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties were systematically investigated as a function of amount of BT, which ranged from 2 to 10 vol%. The PNN-PZT + LC ceramics sintered at 1000 degrees C showed highly textured morphologies with preferred (0 0 1) orientation, having Lotgering factors (f(L)) of 85% and higher. When sintering temperature exceeded 1000 degrees C, the epitaxial grain growth of PNN-PZT + LC rhombohedral phase, driven by BT templates, was hindered by dramatically enlarged matrix grains. In situ X-ray diffractometry analyses are performed to identify phase transition behavior depending on temperature. Properties of d(33) (1180 pC/N) and k(p) (80.3%) were obtained for the 2 vol% BT-templated PNN-PZT + LC ceramic sintered at 1000 degrees C, along with ferroelectric properties of 2P(r) (56.1 mu C/cm(2)) and 2E(c) (1.26 kV/mm) at 3.5 kV/mm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and piezo-response force microscopy were utilized to investigate domain structure and epitaxial grain growth between templated BaTiO3 and matrix ceramics. The low-temperature sintered specimen showed an extremely large electrostrain characteristic (d(33)*) of 1215 pm/V at 1 kV/mm. Furthermore, textured multilayer piezoelectric actuators exhibited higher actuator performance and lower energy loss compared to untextured multilayer piezoelectric actuators, indicating their potential for use in piezoelectric actuator devices.