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BNH doping enhances the piezoelectric properties and temperature stability of KNN-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics

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Abstract

KNN-based ceramics have gained considerable attention due to their excellent performances, cost-effectiveness, and potential applications in transducers. In order to accelerate the piezoelectric performances and temperature reliability of KNN-based ceramics, (1 − x)(K0.48Na0.52)(Nb0.955Sb0.045)O3 − x(Bi0.5Na0.5)HfO3 (abbreviated as KNNS-xBNH) ceramics were prepared. The study focused on investigating the impact of BNH components on their morphology, structure, piezoelectric performances, and temperature reliability of ceramics. This route is crucial for improving the overall performance of KNN-based ceramics. The synthetic piezoelectric ceramics have a typical perovskite structure, in which the optimized ceramic with x = 0.035 shows excellent piezoelectric properties: d33 = 436 pC/N, kp = 0.56, d33* = 604 pm/V, Tc = 253 °C, Pr = 14.75 μC/cm2, Ec = 957 V/mm, and Smax = 0.18%. The co-occurrence of orthorhombic–tetragonal (O–T) phase, relaxation states, and their nanodomain structures contribute significantly to the excellent performance of ceramics with TFs < 0.8‰ and Tεr < 17‰. At the same time, it is verified that the presence of B-site defect dipoles in ceramics has an inactive effect on spontaneous polarization, which is evident in the decrease of d33* measured after polarization.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Key Research and Develop Projects in Gansu Province (No. 23YFGA0002), the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (Grant Nos. 20JR5RA303, 20JR10RA648 and 23JRRA1109) and the Gansu Province Education Science and Technology Innovation Young Doctor Fund (2022QB-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Bosen Li, Cheng Xiong & Daqiang Gao

  2. College of Materials, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, People’s Republic of China

    Guiyang Gao

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  1. Bosen Li
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BL conducted experiments, data testing and analysis, and wrote the manuscript. DG provided the idea of the study. CX provided data curation. GG provided data curation.

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Correspondence to Daqiang Gao.

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Li, B., Xiong, C., Gao, G. et al. BNH doping enhances the piezoelectric properties and temperature stability of KNN-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 153 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11845-1

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