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Effect of lithium carbonate on the sintering, microstructure, and functional properties of sol–gel‐derived Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 piezoceramics

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Abstract

Piezoelectric Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) has been found to be a competitive lead‐free piezoceramic candidate and was prepared by a sol–gel technique due to its small particle size and homogeneous particle size distribution, but the sintering temperature is still quite high in the previous reports. In the present paper, lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) was used as a sintering aid and dopant for the sol–gel‐derived piezoceramic powder, to facilitate the sintering process and adjust the densification, the microstructures and functional properties. With the addition of 0.5 wt% Li2CO3 sintered at 1300 °C, a high relative density 96% with piezoelectric coefficient d33 ~447 pC/N, planar coupling coefficient kp ~0.51, and Curie point TC ~98.7 °C was obtained. The way to properly define the critical changing points on temperature‐dependent dielectric curves were further discussed. By altering sintering temperature and the amount of dopant, the mutual influence between the microstructures and the functional properties was explained, to further guide shaping BCZT in more complexed connectivities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out under the project CEITEC 2020 (LQ1601) with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the National Sustainability Programme II. Part of the work was carried out with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure (MEYS CR, 2016–2019). The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die & Mould Technology, , Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074, Wuhan, P.R. China

    Bo Nan, Lisong Li, Pengyuan Fan & Haibo Zhang

  2. CEITEC – Central European Institute of Technology, , Brno University of Technology, 612 00, Brno, Czechia

    Bo Nan, Aleš Matoušek, Pavel Tofel & Vijay Bijalwan

  3. School of Metallurgy and Materials, , University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK

    Tim Button

  4. Engineering Research Centre for Functional Ceramics, Ministry of Education, , Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074, Wuhan, P.R. China

    Haibo Zhang

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  1. Bo Nan
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Correspondence to Haibo Zhang.

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Nan, B., Matoušek, A., Tofel, P. et al. Effect of lithium carbonate on the sintering, microstructure, and functional properties of sol–gel‐derived Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 piezoceramics. Journal of Materials Research 36, 1105–1113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-020-00065-6

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