Practical high-performance lead-free piezoelectrics: structural flexibility beyond utilizing multiphase coexistence |
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Authors: | Qing Liu Yichi Zhang Jing Gao Zhen Zhou Dong Yang Kai-Yang Lee Andrew Studer Manuel Hinterstein Ke Wang Xiaowen Zhang Longtu Li Jing-Feng Li |
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Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;2. Institute for Applied Materials, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76131, Germany;3. Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia |
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Abstract: | Due to growing concern for the environment and human health, searching for high-performance lead-free piezoceramics has been a hot topic of scientific and industrial research. Despite the significant progress achieved toward enhancing piezoelectricity, further efforts should be devoted to the synergistic improvement of piezoelectricity and its thermal stability. This study provides new insight into these topics. A new KNN-based lead-free ceramic material is presented, which features a large piezoelectric coefficient (d33) exceeding 500 pC/N and a high Curie temperature (Tc) of ∼200°C. The superior piezoelectric response strongly relies on the increased composition-induced structural flexibility due to lattice softening and decreased unit cell distortion. In contrast to piezoelectricity anomalies induced via polymorphic transition, this piezoelectricity enhancement is effective within a broad temperature range rather than a specific small range. In particular, a hierarchical domain architecture composed of nano-sized domains along the submicron domains was detected in this material system, which further contributes to the high piezoelectricity. |
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Keywords: | piezoelectricity lead-free potassium– sodium niobite structural flexibility temperature stability |
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