Giant Piezoelectricity and High Curie Temperature in Nanostructured Alkali Niobate Lead-Free Piezoceramics through Phase Coexistence

Bo Wu; Haijun Wu; Jiagang Wu; Dingquan Xiao; Jianguo Zhu; Stephen J Pennycook

doi:10.1021/jacs.6b09024

Giant Piezoelectricity and High Curie Temperature in Nanostructured Alkali Niobate Lead-Free Piezoceramics through Phase Coexistence

J Am Chem Soc. 2016 Nov 30;138(47):15459-15464. doi: 10.1021/jacs.6b09024. Epub 2016 Nov 17.

Authors

Bo Wu^{1

2}, Haijun Wu³, Jiagang Wu¹, Dingquan Xiao¹, Jianguo Zhu¹, Stephen J Pennycook³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610064, People's Republic of China.
² Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Information Materials and Devices Application, Chengdu University of Information Technology , Chengdu 610225, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore 117575, Singapore.

PMID: 27933925
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b09024

Abstract

Because of growing environmental concerns, the development of lead-free piezoelectric materials with enhanced properties has become of great interest. Here, we report a giant piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₃) of 550 pC/N and a high Curie temperature (T_C) of 237 °C in (1-x-y)K_1-wNa_wNb_1-zSb_zO_3-xBiFeO_3-yBi_0.5Na_0.5ZrO₃ (KN_wNS_z-xBF-yBNZ) ceramics by optimizing x, y, z, and w. Atomic-resolution polarization mapping by Z-contrast imaging reveals the intimate coexistence of rhombohedral (R) and tetragonal (T) phases inside nanodomains, that is, a structural origin for the R-T phase boundary in the present KNN system. Hence, the physical origin of high piezoelectric performance can be attributed to a nearly vanishing polarization anisotropy and thus low domain wall energy, facilitating easy polarization rotation between different states under an external field.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't