Bismuth Ferrite-Based Lead-Free High-Entropy Piezoelectric Ceramics

Hongtian Li; Jianwei Zhao; Yong Li; Longyu Chen; Xiaoxin Chen; Hailan Qin; Huanfu Zhou; Peifeng Li; Jinming Guo; Dawei Wang

doi:10.1021/acsami.3c19340

Bismuth Ferrite-Based Lead-Free High-Entropy Piezoelectric Ceramics

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Feb 21;16(7):9078-9087. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c19340. Epub 2024 Feb 7.

Authors

Hongtian Li^{1

2}, Jianwei Zhao², Yong Li³, Longyu Chen⁴, Xiaoxin Chen^{1

2}, Hailan Qin^{1

2}, Huanfu Zhou¹, Peifeng Li², Jinming Guo⁴, Dawei Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China.
² Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Electronic Materials, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Ferroelectric-Related New Energy Materials and Devices, School of Materials and Metallurgy, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou 014010, China.
⁴ Center of Electron Microscopy, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Green Preparation and Application for Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China.
⁵ School of Instrumentation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.

PMID: 38326938
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c19340

Abstract

Piezoelectric ceramics, as essential components of actuators and transducers, have captured significant attention in both industrial and scientific research. The "entropy engineering" approach has been demonstrated to achieve excellent performance in lead-based materials. In this study, the "entropy engineering" approach was employed to introduce the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) into the bismuth ferrite (BF)-based lead-free system. By employing this strategy, a serial of novel "medium to high entropy" lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were successfully synthesized, namely (1-x)BiFeO₃-x(Ba_0.2Sr_0.2Ca_0.2Bi_0.2Na_0.2)TiO₃ (BF-xBSCBNT, x = 0.15-0.5). Our investigation systematically examined the phase structure, domain configuration, and ferroelectric/piezoelectric properties as a function of conformational entropy. Remarkable performances with a largest strain of 0.50% at 100 kV/cm, remanent polarization ∼40.07 μC/cm², coercive field ∼74.72 kV/cm, piezoelectric coefficient ∼80 pC/N, and $d_{33}^{*}$ ∼500 pm/V were achieved in BF-0.4BSCBNT ceramics. This exceptional performance can be attributed to the presence of MPB, coexisting rhombohedral and cubic phases, along with localized nanodomains. The concept of high-entropy lead-free piezoelectric ceramics in this study provides a promising strategy for the exploration and development of the next generation of lead-free piezoelectric materials.

Keywords: bismuth ferrite; high entropy; lead-free; morphotropic phase boundary; piezoelectric ceramics.