Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.94, No.12, 4317-4322, 2011
Effect of the Addition of CaZrO3 and LiNbO3 on the Phase Transitions and Piezoelectric Properties of K0.5Na0.5NbO3 Lead-Free Ceramics
The (1-x-y)K0.5Na0.5NbO3-xCaZrO3-yLiNbO3 (KNLNCZ-x-y) lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were fabricated by conventional technique, and the effect of the addition of CaZrO3 and LiNbO3 on the phase transitions and piezoelectric properties of the KNN-based ceramics was investigated. The addition of CaZrO3 will shift the orthorhombic-rhombohedral transition temperature of the ceramics to above room temperature, and with the increase of the CaZrO3 additives, a dielectric peak rises up near the orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition of the ceramics resulting in the spread of the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition over a rather wide temperature range due to polar nanoregions arising from composition fluctuation. For x = 0.05, the addition of LiNbO3 is effective to shift the TR-O and TO-T downward and TC upward in KNLNCZ-0.05-y ceramics. Optimum piezoelectric properties (d33 = 216 pC/N and kp = 42.9%) were obtained for the KNLNCZ-x-y ceramics with x = 0.05 and y = 0.07 due to the decrease of TO-T to be around room temperature.