Design of lead-free BCZT-based ceramics with enhanced piezoelectric energy harvesting performances

Soukaina Merselmiz; Zouhair Hanani; Uroš Prah; Daoud Mezzane; Lahoucine Hajji; Zahra Abkhar; Matjaž Spreitzer; Damjan Vengust; Hana Uršič; David Fabijan; Anna G Razumnaya; Olesia Shapovalova; Igor A Luk'yanchuk; Zdravko Kutnjak

doi:10.1039/d1cp04723j

Design of lead-free BCZT-based ceramics with enhanced piezoelectric energy harvesting performances

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2022 Mar 9;24(10):6026-6036. doi: 10.1039/d1cp04723j.

Authors

Soukaina Merselmiz¹, Zouhair Hanani², Uroš Prah², Daoud Mezzane^{1

3}, Lahoucine Hajji¹, Zahra Abkhar¹, Matjaž Spreitzer², Damjan Vengust², Hana Uršič², David Fabijan², Anna G Razumnaya^{3

4}, Olesia Shapovalova⁵, Igor A Luk'yanchuk^{3

6}, Zdravko Kutnjak²

Affiliations

¹ IMAD-Lab, Cadi Ayyad University, Avenue Abdelkrim El Khattabi, P.B. 549, Marrakesh, 40000, Morocco. soukaina.mers@gmail.com.
² Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia.
³ LPMC, University of Picardy Jules Verne, 33 rue Saint Leu, Amiens, 80039, France.
⁴ Physics Faculty, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, 344090, Russia.
⁵ LAVQ, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
⁶ Department of Building Materials, Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Kyiv, 03680, Ukraine.

PMID: 35202452
DOI: 10.1039/d1cp04723j

Abstract

The design of lead-free ceramics for piezoelectric energy harvesting applications has become a hot topic. Among these materials, Ba_0.85Ca_0.15Zr_0.10Ti_0.90O₃ (BCZT) and BaTi_0.89Sn_0.11O₃ (BTSn) are considered as potential candidates due to their enhanced piezoelectric properties. Here, the structural, electrical, piezoelectric and piezoelectric energy harvesting properties of the (1 - x)Ba_0.85Ca_0.15Zr_0.10Ti_0.90O₃-xBaTi_0.89Sn_0.11O₃ (xBTSn, x = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6) system are investigated. A systematic study of the structural properties of the xBTSn samples was carried out using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and dielectric measurements. The addition of BTSn allows a successive phase transition, which broadens the application temperature range. The enhanced piezoelectric energy harvesting properties were found in the 0.2BTSn ceramic, where the large-signal and small-signal piezoelectric coefficients, piezoelectric voltage and the piezoelectric figure of merit reached 245 pm V^-1, 228 pC N^-1, 16.2 mV m N^-1 and 3.7 pm² N^-1, respectively. Consequently, the combination of BCZT and BTSn could provide suitable lead-free materials with enhanced piezoelectric energy harvesting performances.