Relation between structure and piezoelectric properties of (1-x-y)PbZrO3-xPbTiO3-yPb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramics near triple point composition

Abstract The structural and piezoelectric properties of (1-x-y)PbZrO 3 -xPbTiO 3 -yPb(Ni 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 [(1-x-y)PZ-xPT-yPNN] ceramics near the triple point were investigated. The 0.16PZ-0.34PT-0.5PNN ceramic with a triple point composition exhibited a large d 33 , k p and e 33 T /e o values of 855 pC/N, 0.68 and 5800, respectively. However, its g 33 and d 33 x g 33 values were relatively small because of its large e 33 T /e o . Similar results were obtained for specimens with rhombohedral-tetragonal or pseudocubic-tetragonal morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) compositions. However, specimens with a rhombohedral structure near the rhombohedral-tetragonal MPB exhibited large g 33 and d 33 x g 33 values because of their large d 33 and small e 33 T /e o that can be explained by their polarization characteristics. In particular, 0.23PZ-0.36PT-0.41PNN ceramic exhibited large g 33 and d 33 x g 33 values of 30.2 × 10 −3 Vm/N and 22.6 × 10 −12  m 2 /N, respectively, thus making it a good candidate for piezoelectric energy harvesters and multilayer actuators.