Ultralow Temperature Sintering of High-Performance Sm-Doped Pb(Zr,Ti)O3-Based Piezoelectric Ceramics

Piezoelectric materials (PZTs) enjoy extensive applications in the field of electromechanical sensors due to their sensitive response to external electric fields. The limited piezoelectric response for single-layer piezoceramic pellets drives the use of multilayered technology to increase the electric displacement of a single piezo device. As is well known, Ag is commonly used as a metal for electrodes in devices based on traditional PZTs, which always densify at a high temperature above 1100 °C, resulting in Ag migration. Here, a high-performance samarium-ion-doped Sm0.01Pb0.99(Zr0.54Ti0.46)O3ceramic was selected as parent materials to develop a new Ag-cofired ceramic matrix with a sintering temperature of 920 °C by glass flux. The ceramic composition with 2.0 wt% glass addition exhibits the excellent performance of piezoelectricd33~492 pC/N, planar electromechanical coupling coefficientkp~50.1%, mechanical quality factorQm~68.71, and Curie temperatureTc~356 °C, respectively. The cyclic stability ofd33was measured below 6.6% at 30 kV/cm, which indicates that the piezoceramic has good temperature stability and fatigue resistance. Therefore, this study provides a novel high-performance piezoelectric system to meet the cofired requirement for multilayered piezoelectric devices.