Low-temperature sintering and piezoelectric properties of ZnO-added 0.41Pb(Ni1/3 Nb2/3)O3-0.36PbTiO3-0.23PbZrO3 ceramics

Abstract

The structure of 0.41(PbNi1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.36PbTiO3-0.23 PbZrO3 (0.41PNN-0.36PT-0.23PZ) ceramics changed from pseudocubic to tetragonal when ZnO was added. For the specimens sintered above 1000°C, bulk density slightly decreased with the addition of ZnO but it significantly increased for the specimens sintered below 1000°C. Curie temperature (Tc) and maximum dielectric constant increased when ZnO was added. Coercive electric field (Ec) and mechanical quality factor (Qm) increased with the addition of ZnO but piezoelectric constant (d33), electromechanical coupling factor (kp) and dielectric constant (ε3T/ε0) decreased with the addition of ZnO for the specimens sintered above 1,000°C. However, for the specimens sintered below 1000°C, the addition of ZnO significantly improved the piezoelectric and dielectric constants, which could be due to the improvement of bulk density. The good dielectric and piezoelectric properties of d33 = 525 (pC/N), kp = 0.53 and ε3T/εo = 3400 were obtained for the specimen with 3 mol% ZnO sintered at 950°C for 1 h.