Ultrahigh piezoelectric performances of (K,Na)NbO3 based ceramics enabled by structural flexibility and grain orientation

Li-Feng Zhu; Dong Liu; Xiaoming Shi; Shiqing Deng; Jiecheng Liu; Li-Yu Wei; Zi-Qi Yang; Qi Wang; Bo-Ping Zhang; Houbing Huang; Shujun Zhang; Jing-Feng Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56074-8

Ultrahigh piezoelectric performances of (K,Na)NbO₃ based ceramics enabled by structural flexibility and grain orientation

Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 21;16(1):901. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56074-8.

Authors

Li-Feng Zhu^#¹, Dong Liu^#^{1

2}, Xiaoming Shi^#³, Shiqing Deng⁴, Jiecheng Liu³, Li-Yu Wei⁵, Zi-Qi Yang⁵, Qi Wang¹, Bo-Ping Zhang⁶, Houbing Huang⁷, Shujun Zhang⁸, Jing-Feng Li⁹

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
² Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
⁴ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China. [email protected].
⁵ State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China. [email protected].
⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering and Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
⁸ Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. [email protected].
⁹ State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39837848
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56074-8

Abstract

(K,Na)NbO₃-based ceramics are deemed among the most promising lead-free piezoelectric materials, though their overall piezoelectric performance still lags behind the mainstream lead-containing counterparts. Here, we achieve an ultrahigh piezoelectric charge coefficient d₃₃ ∼ 807 pC·N^-1, along with a high longitudinal electromechanical coupling factor (k₃₃ ∼ 88%) and Curie temperature (T_c ∼ 245 °C) in the (K,Na)(Nb_1-xSb_x)O₃-Bi_0.5Na_0.5ZrO₃-BiFeO₃ (KNN-xSb) system through structural flexibility and grain orientation strategies. Phenomenological models, phase field simulations and high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy reveal that the structural flexibility originates from the high Coulomb force between K⁺/Na⁺ ions and Sb ions in the KNN-xSb system, while the grain orientation promotes the displacement of B-site cations leveraging the engineered domain configuration. As a result of its excellent comprehensive piezoelectric properties, the textured KNN-5Sb/epoxy 1-3 piezoelectric composite is found to possess a broader bandwidth BW = 60% and higher amplitude output voltage than commercial PZT-5 and other KNN counterparts. These findings suggest that the textured KNN-5Sb ceramics could potentially replace current lead-based piezoceramics in transducer applications.

Grants and funding

52272104/National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)