Low temperature sintering of Li2CO3 added Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)-Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics with high piezoelectric properties

Abstract Multilayer structure is an effective approach for reducing driving voltages or increasing output electric signal for piezoelectric devices. However, it is a challenge to achieve high piezoelectric coefficient at low sintering temperature. In this work, we fabricated Li2CO3 (LC) doped Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)-Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PNN-PZT) ceramics via solid state reaction method. Piezoelectric coefficient at low quasi-static signal d33 and effective piezoelectric coefficient under high electric field d33⁎ are 692 pC/N, 1114 pm/V for PNN-PZT+0.2 wt% LC sintered at 950 oC, which is comparable to high temperature sintered commercial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) based ceramics. Detailed piezoelectric, ferroelectric, dielectric properties, temperature stability and material structure were investigated. The planar electromechanical coupling factor Kp, relative dielectric constant er and dielectric loss tan δ at 1 kHz, Curie temperature Tc, coercive electric field Ec are measured to be 0.557, 4280, 0.025, 113 oC, 4.34 kV/cm. It shows great potential for applications in multilayer structured cofired piezoelectric actuators and transducers.