Low-temperature sintered(Na_(1/2)Bi_(1/2))TiO_(3)-based incipient piezoceramics for co-fired multilayer actuator application

Low-temperature sintered(Na_(1/2)Bi_(1/2))_(0.935)Ba_(0.065)Ti_(0.975)(Fe_(1/2)Nb_(1/2))_(0.025)O_(3)(NBT-BT-0.025FN)lead-free incipient piezoceramics were investigated using high-purity Li_(2)CO_(3) as sintering aids.With the ≤0.5 wt%Li_(2)CO_(3) addition,the introduced Li^(+) cations precede to enter the A-sites of the perovskite lattice to compensate for the A-site deficiencies.Once the addition exceeds 0.5 wt%,the excess Lit cations will occupy B-sites and give rise to the generation of oxygen vacancies,which accelerate the mass transport and thus lower the sintering temperature effectively from 1100℃ down to 925℃.It was also found that a small amount of Lit addition has little effect on the phase structure and electromechanical properties of the system,but overweight seriously disturbs these characteristics because of the large lattice distortion.The sintered NBT-BT-0.025FN incipient piezoceramics with 1.25 wt%Li_(2)CO_(3) addition at 925℃ provides a large strain of 0.33% and a corresponding large signal piezoelectric coefficient d_(33)^(*) of 550 pm/V at 60 kV/cm,indicating this system is a very promising candidate for lead-free co-fired multilayer actuator application.

Effect of Cr doping on secondary phases and electrical properties of zinc oxide ceramic thick film varistors

In order to get high-performance low voltage varistors,Cr2O3 doped ZnO ceramic thick films were fabricated by modified sol-gel process. The precursors were fabricated by dispersing doped-ZnO ceramic nano-powders in the sols,which were prepared by dissolving zinc acetate dihydrate into 2-methoxyethanol and stabilized by diethanolamine and glacial acetic acid and doped with a concentrated solution of bismuth nitrate,phenylstibonic acid,cobalt nitrate,manganese acetate and chromium nitrate. The results show that ZnCr2O4 phase can form in ZnO based ceramic films doped 1.0%(mole fraction) Cr2O3. Three secondary phases,such as Bi2O3,Zn7Sb2O12,and ZnCr2O4 phases,are detected in the thick films. The Raman spectra show that the intensity and the position of Raman bands of Zn7Sb2O12 and ZnCr2O4 phases change obviously with increasing Cr2O3 doping. The nonlinearity coefficient α of ZnO thick films is 7.0,the nonlinear voltage is 6 V,and the leakage current density is 0.7 μA/mm2.

Point-defect-driven flattened polar phonon bands in fluorite ferroelectrics

The scale-free ferroelectric polarization of fluorite MO_(2)(M=Hf,Zr)due to flat polar phonon bands are promising for nonvolatile memories.Defects are also widely introduced to improve the emergent ferroelectricity.However,their roles are still not fully understood at the atomic-level.Here,we report a significant effect of point-defect-driven flattening of polar phonon bands with more polar modes and polarization contribution in doped MO_(2).The polar phonon bands in La-doped MO_(2)(M=Hf,Zr)can be significantly flattened,compared with pure ones.However,the lower energy barrier with larger polarization of VO-only doped MO_(2) compared with La-doped cases suggest that VO and local lattice distortion should be balanced for high-performance fluorite ferroelectricity.The work is believed to bridge the relation between point defects and the generally enhanced induced ferroelectricity in fluorite ferroelectrics at the atomic-level and inspire their further property optimization via defect-engineering.