Effect of Li 2 CO 3 addition in BiFeO 3 -BaTiO 3 ceramics on the sintering temperature, electrical properties and phase transition

Abstract In this work, we reported that a BiFeO 3 -BaTiO 3 (BF-BT) ceramics with Li 2 CO 3 as a sintering aid was fabricated in order to develop a new materials sintered at low-temperature for piezoelectric applications. The phase transition, microstructure, dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties, and temperature stability of the ceramics were investigated. The results show that the addition of Li 2 CO 3 improves the electrical properties of BF-BT ceramics and decreases the sintering temperature from 990 °C to 930 °C. The obtained Li 2 CO 3 -doped ceramics sintered at 930 °C when x  = 0.3 mol% have an optimized electrical properties, which were listed as follows: ( k p = 0.294, Q m  = 38.33, tanδ = 0.043 and d 33  = 163 pC/N), high Curie temperatures ( T c  = 508 °C) and high depolarization temperature ( T d  = 480 °C). These results indicate that this material is a promising candidate for high-temperature lead-free piezoelectric applications.