Preparation and Properties of Hard PZT Piezoelectric Ceramics Poled above Curie Temperature and Multilayer Actuators

doi:10.15541/jim20240161

Abstract

Abstract:

Piezoelectric multilayer actuators feature large displacement generation at a relatively low driving voltage and are widely used in various fields. As the most commonly used material in multilayer actuators, soft lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics have higher dielectric constant and loss, which often lead to higher power consumption and heat generation that in turn affect fatigue characteristics and stability of piezoelectric multilayer actuators. In this work, Mn-doped (in mole fraction) Pb(Sb_1/2Nb_1/2)_0.02Zr_0.51Ti_0.47O₃-0.6%MnCO₃(PSN-PZT) hard ceramic was selected as base material in order to prepare piezoelectric ceramics that have low heat generation and are suitable for the application of piezoelectric multilayer actuator. Certain amount of Li₂CO₃ was doped as sintering aid for lowering sintering temperature of ceramics, and above-Curie-temperature polarization was utilized to enhance electric properties of ceramics. Eventually, multilayer actuator composed of this material was fabricated via tape-casting process and compared with Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.25(Ti_0.48Zr_0.52)_0.75O₃ (PMN-PZT) actuator prepared with the same parameters. The results indicated that the sintering temperature of PSN-PZT ceramic was decreased to 1050 ℃ due to Li₂CO₃ sintering aid, which introduced liquid sintering during the sintering process. PSN-PZT ceramics poled above the Curie temperature obtained optimal electric performance with 0.1% (in mass) Li₂CO₃ doping, and the piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₃) and unipolar strain at 2 kV/mm reached 388 pC/N and 0.13%, respectively. The results of temperature rise and strain degradation of both multilayer actuators indicated that the temperature rise of hard PSN-PZT actuator was about 20 ℃ lower than that of PMN-PZT actuator under 200 Hz and the strain decreased by 6% after 5×10⁶ cycles. It indicates that PSN-PZT ceramics with Li₂CO₃ doping for lowering sintering temperature have some advantages in heat generation and fatigue characteristic while having descent piezoelectric properties, which endows it an important potential application in high-power, high-frequency and other demanding working conditions.

Key words: hard PZT, low-temperature sintering, piezoelectric multilayer actuator, temperature rise, fatigue characteristic

CLC Number:

TQ174

JIANG Qiang, SHI Lizhi, CHEN Zhengran, ZHOU Zhiyong, LIANG Ruihong. Preparation and Properties of Hard PZT Piezoelectric Ceramics Poled above Curie Temperature and Multilayer Actuators[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2024, 39(10): 1091-1099.

Figures/Tables 13

Fig. 1 Densities of PSN-PZT samples with variation of sintering temperature and Li2CO3 addition

Fig. 2 XRD patterns of PSN-PZT samples with different Li2CO3 additions (a) 2θ=10°-70°; (b) 2θ=43°-47°

Fig. 3 Surface morphologies and distributions of grain sizes of PSN-PZT samples with different Li2CO3 additions (a) 0.05%; (b) 0.1%; (c) 0.2%; (d) 0.3%; (e) 0.5%. M: Mean particle diameter

Fig. 4 Change of properties of PSN-PZT samples with Li2CO3 addition and sintering temperature (a) Piezoelectric coefficient d33; (b) Unipolar strain at 2 kV/mm

Fig. 5 kp, Qm, and tanδ of PSN-PZT samples with different Li2CO3 additions

Fig. 6 Properties of PSN-PZT samples with different Li2CO3 additions under conventional polarization and above-Curie-temperature polarization (a) Piezoelectric coefficient d33; (b) Unipolar strain

Fig. 7 Diagrams of domain structures (a, b) of PSN-PZT samples under conventional polarization (a) and above-Curie-temperature polarization (b), and their corresponding distributions of phases (c)

Table 1 Comparison of properties between piezoelectric ceramics in this work and literatures

Sample	Sintering temperature/℃	d₃₃/(pC·N^-1)	k_p	tanδ/%	Strain/%@2 kV/mm	Ref.
PSN-PZT-MnCO₃-Li₂CO₃	1050	388	0.66	0.30	0.13	This Work
PZT	1250	210	0.52	1.2	-	[29]
PZT-Mn	1230	180	0.62	0.80	-	[30]
PMS-PZT	1240	374	0.60	0.41	-	[31]
PZT4	>1200	289	0.70	0.4	0.02	[32]
PZT-PbO-WO₃	~1100	-	0.25	0.35	-	[19]
PZT-ZnO	1150	240	0.50	1.2	-	[33]
PBaSrZT-LiBiO₂-CuO-MnCO₃	900	255	0.58	0.58	-	[34]

Fig. 8 Photographs of the hard PSN-PZT multilayer actuator (right) and the PMN-PZT multilayer actuator (left)

Fig. 9 SEM images of the hard PSN-PZT actuator (a) and PMN-PZT actuator (b)

Table 2 Dielectric properties of the hard PSN-PZT and PMN-PZT actuators

Sample	C/μF	tanδ/%
Hard PSN-PZT actuator	0.32	0.45
PMN-PZT actuator	0.71	2.29

Fig. 10 Temperature rise of the hard PSN-PZT actuator and PMN-PZT actuator under 150 V driving voltage and various frequencies (a) 50 Hz; (b) 100 Hz; (c) 150 Hz; (d) 200 Hz

Fig. 11 Strain degradation of the hard PSN-PZT actuator and PMN-PZT actuator under 150 V driving voltage and 200 Hz driving frequency

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