UV-activated seed strategy for promoting textured colossal grain growth in templated ceramic processing

Abstract

Templated Grain Growth (TGG) is a method of growing a matrix using crystallographically oriented seeds, allowing the manipulation of growth behavior by controlling their interfaces. We explore the surface treatment of seeds to enhance the piezoelectric properties of ceramics, focusing on 0.675Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.325PbTiO3 (PMN-32.5PT) and BaTiO3 (BT) seeds. Employing Ultra-Violet (UV) light treatment on BT seeds promotes grain growth around them, a method termed UV-TGG. Notably, this technique leads to substantial grain enlargement and an increase in the piezoelectric constant, all achieved without altering the composition of the seed or matrix materials. When using UV-TGG, there was a 140 % improvement in the d33xg33 value, which was 33.2 pm2/N compared to the conventional TGG's value of 23.7 pm2/N. The UV-TGG introduces an easy way to elevate ceramic performance and facilitate material design without altering composition.