Synergy of lead vacancies and morphotropic phase boundary to promote high piezoelectricity and temperature stability of PBZTN ceramics

•A synergetic strategy including introducing lead vacancies and constructing an MPB to improve the piezoelectricity and temperature stability.•Excellent piezoelectric properties (d33=864 pC/N, kp=84%, TC=201 °C) are obtained simultaneously in PBZTN-0.540 ceramics.•High temperature stability (less than 10% variations for electrical properties from 20 °C to 160 °C) is achieved in PBZTN-0.540 ceramics.