Investigation of Quaternary BF-0.32PT-0.05BZ-xPNN Piezoelectric Ceramics with High Transduction Coefficient

The quaternary piezoelectric ceramics (0.63-x)BiFeO3-0.32PbTiO3-0.05BaZrO3-xPb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 (BF-0.32PT-0.05BZ-xPNN, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.22) were prepared by the traditional solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction results show that the perovskite-structured BF-0.32PT-0.05BZ-xPNN ceramics exhibit a tetragonal-to-rhombohedral phase transition with the increase in Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PNN) content. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that the ceramics are well densified, with average grain size of 2–8 μm. The introduction of PNN improves the piezoelectric properties of the ceramics, and it can be seen that the 0.51BF-0.32PT-0.05BZ-0.12PNN quaternary ceramics have excellent piezoelectric properties, with piezoelectric coefficient d33, piezoelectric voltage constant g33 and transduction coefficient d33 × g33 of 410 pC/N, 32 × 10−3 Vm/N and 13,120 × 10−15 m2/N, respectively. Our results indicate that BF-0.32PT-0.05BZ-0.12PNN quaternary ceramics have higher transduction coefficients than those of commercial piezoelectric ceramics, such as PZT502, PZT703 and APC850, revealing their great potential in the field of piezoelectric energy harvesting.