Dielectric and piezoelectric properties of porous lead-free 0.5Ba(Ca0.8Zr0.2)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca 0.3)TiO3 ceramics

Yan Zhang, Mengying Xie, James Roscow, Chris Bowen

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Abstract

Porous barium calcium zirconate titanate 0.5Ba(Ca0.8Zr0.2)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 (BCZT) lead-free ferroelectric ceramics were fabricated via a burnt polymer spheres (BURPS) technique by introducing corn starch as the pore-forming agent. The effect of porosity on the microstructure, dielectric, and piezoelectric properties of the porous materials were investigated. An increase in porosity volume fraction from 10% to 25% resulted in an increase in the hydrostatic charge coefficient (dh), which was 140 to 560% higher than that of the dense BCZT material. An increase in porosity fraction from 10% to 25% also lead to a decrease in relative permittivity that was 16.7% to 60.4% lower than the dense material. These two changes in properties provided a significant enhancement of the hydrostatic figure of merit (dh∙gh) for the porous ceramic; for example the dh∙gh of the 25 vol.% porous BCZT ceramic was 158 times more than the dense ceramic and demonstrates the potential of porous lead-free ferroelectrics for piezoelectric transducer devices. Reasons for the significant enhancement in piezoelectric performance of the porous ceramics are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)426-431
Number of pages6
JournalMaterials Research Bulletin
Volume112
Early online date24 Aug 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2019

Funding

Dr. Y. Zhang would like to acknowledge the European Commission's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) , through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) ( H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-EF-703950-HEAPPs ) under Horizon 2020. Prof. C. R. Bowen, Dr. M. Xie and Mr J. Roscow would like to acknowledge the funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 320963 on Novel Energy Materials, Engineering Science and Integrated Systems (NEMESIS).

Keywords

  • Dielectrics
  • Lead-free ceramic
  • Piezoelectrics
  • Porous

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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