Cold sintering and electrical characterization of lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramics
Dixiong Wang,
Hanzheng Guo,
Carl S. Morandi,
Clive A. Randall,
Susan Trolier-McKinstry
Affiliations
Dixiong Wang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Hanzheng Guo
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Carl S. Morandi
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Clive A. Randall
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Susan Trolier-McKinstry
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
This paper describes a cold sintering process for Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics and the associated processing-property relations. Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 has a very small, incongruent solubility that is a challenge during cold sintering. To circumvent this, a Pb(NO3)2 solution was used as the transient liquid phase. A bimodal lead zirconate titanate powder was densified to a relative density of 89% by cold sintering at 300 °C and 500 MPa. After the cold sintering step, the permittivity was 200, and the dielectric loss was 2.0%. A second heat-treatment involving a 3 h anneal at 900 °C increased the relative density to 99%; the resulting relative dielectric permittivity was 1300 at room temperature and 100 kHz. The samples showed well-defined ferroelectric hysteresis loops, having a remanent polarization of 28 μC/cm2. On poling, the piezoelectric coefficient d33 was ∼200 pC/N. With a 700 °C 3 h post-annealing, samples show a lower room temperature relative permittivity (950 at 100 kHz), but a 24 h hold time at 700 °C produces ceramics where there is an improved relative dielectric constant (1050 at 100 kHz).
