Microscopic Insight into Electric Fatigue Resistance and Thermally Stable Piezoelectric Properties of (K,Na)NbO3-Based Ceramics

Peng Li; Xiaoqiu Chen; Feifei Wang; Bo Shen; Jiwei Zhai; Shujun Zhang; Zhiyong Zhou

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b08445

Microscopic Insight into Electric Fatigue Resistance and Thermally Stable Piezoelectric Properties of (K,Na)NbO₃-Based Ceramics

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Aug 29;10(34):28772-28779. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b08445. Epub 2018 Aug 20.

Authors

Peng Li¹, Xiaoqiu Chen², Feifei Wang², Bo Shen¹, Jiwei Zhai¹, Shujun Zhang³, Zhiyong Zhou⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering , Tongji University , Shanghai 201804 , China.
² Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Material and Device, Department of Physics , Shanghai Normal University , Shanghai 200234 , China.
³ Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, Australian Institute of Innovative Materials , University of Wollongong , Wollongong 2500 , New South Wales , Australia.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Material and Device , Shanghai Institute of Ceramics , Shanghai 201800 , China.

PMID: 30084255
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b08445

Abstract

Pb-Based piezoelectric materials such as Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ have been the mainstay for electromechanical devices; however, they encounter the challenge of sustainable environmental development, which requires Pb-free piezoelectric counterparts. The foremost obstacles in developing Pb-free piezoceramics are their low piezoresponse and inferior temperature stability. In this work, we reported Mn-modified ⟨00 l⟩_c-textured (K,Na)NbO₃-based ceramics to achieve thermally stable piezoelectric properties and enhanced fatigue resistance in conjunction with high piezoelectricity of d₃₃ ∼ 560 pC/N. The in situ d₃₃ measurement reveals that the temperature stability of the small signal d₃₃ is mainly dependent on temperature-induced phase transition. However, the local piezoresponse force microscopy measurements imply that the excellent temperature stability of the large signal d₃₃* (field-induced strain) benefits from the stable domain response to applied electric field at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the good fatigue resistance is proposed to be associated with the decreased defect concentration by Mn doping, based on the analyses of dielectric loss, leakage current, and thermally stimulated depolarization current.

Keywords: KNN; fatigue behavior; microscopic origin; piezoelectricity; textured ceramics; thermal stability.