Cold sintering and electrical characterization of lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramics

Dixiong Wang,Clive A Randall,Susan Trolier-Mckinstry,Carl S Morandi,Hanzheng Guo

doi:10.1063/1.5004420

Dixiong Wang, Clive A Randall + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5004420

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Journal: APL materials	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2018
Citations: 67	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

This paper describes a cold sintering process for Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics and the associated processing-property relations. Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 has a very small, incongruent solubility that is a challenge during cold sintering. To circumvent this, a Pb(NO3)2 solution was used as the transient liquid phase. A bimodal lead zirconate titanate powder was densified to a relative density of 89% by cold sintering at 300 °C and 500 MPa. After the cold sintering step, the permittivity was 200, and the dielectric loss was 2.0%. A second heat-treatment involving a 3 h anneal at 900 °C increased the relative density to 99%; the resulting relative dielectric permittivity was 1300 at room temperature and 100 kHz. The samples showed well-defined ferroelectric hysteresis loops, having a remanent polarization of 28 μC/cm2. On poling, the piezoelectric coefficient d33 was ∼200 pC/N. With a 700 °C 3 h post-annealing, samples show a lower room temperature relative permittivity (950 at 100 kHz), but a 24 h hold time at 700 °C produces ceramics where there is an improved relative dielectric constant (1050 at 100 kHz).

Highlights

Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) piezoelectric ceramics are widely employed in ultrasound transducers,[1] precise positioning actuators,[2] sensors, and energy harvesters.[3]
In the case of BaTiO3, the use of water as a liquid phase promotes leaching of Ba2+ with subsequent formation of BaCO3 and passivation of the powder surfaces with an unreactive hydrated titanium-rich surface layer that prevents densification.[18]
Sintering temperature reduces the amount of lead loss, which may decrease the number of point defects in PZT, and leads to less pollution

Summary

Introduction

Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) piezoelectric ceramics are widely employed in ultrasound transducers,[1] precise positioning actuators,[2] sensors, and energy harvesters.[3]. (Received 12 September 2017; accepted 5 December 2017; published online 2 January 2018) Some of the cold sintered PZT pellets underwent a post-annealing step at 700 ◦C for 3 h, 700 ◦C for 24 h, or 900 ◦C for 3 h.

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