4D Printing of Lead Zirconate Titanate Piezoelectric Composites Transducer Based on Direct Ink Writing

Kai Liu,Yu Fu,Shuyu Zhou,Huajun Sun,Chenyang Zhou,Yuzhen Zhang,Changxia Yin,Yusheng Shi,Qingqing Zhang,Ce Sun,Jiaming Hu

doi:10.3389/fmats.2021.659441

Abstract

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric composites used in transducers were fabricated via direct ink writing (DIW) combined with furnace sintering and resin impregnation. A ceramic slurry with a volume fraction of 52 vol% and suitable viscoelasticity was prepared. After post-process, the PZT ceramic specimens showed a nanoscale grain size with a density of 7.63 g/cm3, accounting for 97.8% of the theoretical density. The effects of different printing rod spacing on the electrical properties of composites were evaluated and lucubrated. Finally, an underwater acoustic transducer was assembled by using the PZT piezoelectric composites fabricated by the above method. The electrical signal generated by the underwater acoustic transducer changed autonomously with the acoustic stimulation, which indicated the application mode of 4D printing in functional devices in the future.

Highlights

Underwater acoustic transducer is a kind of functional device that can convert acoustic and electrical signals into each other and its core component is piezoelectric composite material (Tian et al, 2021; Li et al, 2006; Rouffaud et al, 2015)
The viscous component allows the slurry to be smoothly extruded through the needle head, while the elastic component gives the extruded filament shape-retention ability and sufficient mechanical strength to support the weight of the subsequent layer (Revelo and Colorado, 2018)
Using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a macromolecular template, PVA-PAA gel can be obtained by in-situ polymerization of acrylic acid (AA)

Summary

Introduction

Underwater acoustic transducer is a kind of functional device that can convert acoustic and electrical signals into each other and its core component is piezoelectric composite material (Tian et al, 2021; Li et al, 2006; Rouffaud et al, 2015). Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has the advantage of being easy to prepare complex structural parts, including direct ink writing (DIW), digital light processing (DLP), selective laser sintering (SLS) and other methods. The principle of DIW is to extrude viscoelastic ink from the needle head to form rod-shaped fibers. As the needle head moves, the rod-shaped fibers are deposited into a specific pattern (Revelo and Colorado, 2018; Coppola et al, 2021). DLP technology is to project patterned ultraviolet light onto the photocurable material to cure each single layer, and form a specific shape through the superimposition of layers (Wang et al, 2019; Li et al, 2021).

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