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Hot-press sintering K0.5Na0.5NbO3–0.5 mol%Al2O3 ceramics with enhanced ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties

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Abstract

Lead-free ceramics K0.5Na0.5NbO3–0.5 mol%Al2O3 with simple composition were prepared via the hot-press sintering. The ceramics exhibit dense microstructure, fine grains, and pure orthorhombic structure. Via the hot-press sintering as well as adding 0.5 mol%Al2O3 into K0.5Na0.5NbO3, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of the obtained ceramics were obviously enhanced. The ceramics exhibit high remnant polarization Pr = 26.8 μC/cm2 and piezoelectric constant d33 = 137 pC/N. The maximum unipolar strain is 0.17%, and the converse piezoelectric coefficient d33* is 212 pm/V under electric field E = 80 kV/cm. Under E = 50 kV/cm, the Pr increases from 21.6 to 22.2 μC/cm2, and the d33* increases from 223 to 322 pm/V as the temperature increases from room temperature to 170 °C. The ex situ measurement result demonstrates that d33 still keeps a high value of 97 pC/N as the annealing temperature increases to 380 °C, implying excellent thermal stability.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Shaanxi Province Science and Technology Foundation (2018JM1009), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. GK201803017, GK201901005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710119, People’s Republic of China

    Zi-de Yu, Xiao-ming Chen, Yu-long Su, Jiang-bo Lu, Jian-ping Zhou & Peng Liu

  2. School of Science, Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi’an, 710121, People’s Republic of China

    Han-li Lian

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  1. Zi-de Yu
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Yu, Zd., Chen, Xm., Su, Yl. et al. Hot-press sintering K0.5Na0.5NbO3–0.5 mol%Al2O3 ceramics with enhanced ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. J Mater Sci 54, 13457–13466 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03850-9

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