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Reduced leakage current and excellent thermal stability in lead-free BiFeO3–BaTiO3-based piezoelectric ceramics

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Abstract

It is extremely difficult to completely pole BiFeO3–BaTiO3 ceramics, due to the large leakage current under an electric field. In the present work, Ga and MnO2 were added into 0.7BiFO3–0.3BaTiO3 in order to decrease the leakage current, forming new solid solutions with the general formula of 0.7Bi1+xFe0.98Ga0.02O3–0.3BaTiO3 + ywt%MnO2. Additionally, excess Bi was incorporated into the ceramics to compensate for the volatilization of Bi during high-temperature processes. It was found that both-Bi-excess and MnO2 doping could reduce the leakage current as long as they were maintained at a suitable amount. A combination of strong piezoelectric activity (d33 = 167 pC/N) and a high Curie temperature (TC = 502 °C) was achieved in the ceramics with x = 0.05, y = 0.1. Moreover, the piezoelectric properties of the ceramics exhibited superior thermal stability, reflected in the fact that their d33 decreased by only 25%, from room temperature up to 450 °C.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kevin Chang (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University) for his assistance in proofreading the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. XDJK2020B003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China

    Xudong Bai, Yongqi Pan, Zhichao Xia, Caiwang He, Guannan Li & Yi Chen

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  1. Xudong Bai
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Bai, X., Pan, Y., Xia, Z. et al. Reduced leakage current and excellent thermal stability in lead-free BiFeO3–BaTiO3-based piezoelectric ceramics. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 3949–3964 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-07589-5

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