Fabrication of 1-3 connectivity (Ba0.95Pb0.05)(Ti0.99Co0.01)O3/monothane-A70 composites by die-pressing method and their electrical characterizations

This paper presents a novel die-pressing technique for the fabrication of 1-3 piezoceramic/polymer composites. Piezoceramic (Ba0.95Pb0.05)(Ti0.99Co0.01)O3 (BT) powder having particle size ~0.4 μm was synthesized by a solid state reaction method. Key properties of sintered and poled BT samples were εr=1100, d33=136 pC/N, g33=14×10−3 V m/N and tan δ=0.005. The 1-3 connectivity BT/monothane-A70 samples with variable BT contents (11-31 vol%) were fabricated by a die-pressing technique. The dielectric, elastic and resonant characteristics were investigated by using standard equipments. Results revealed that the composites possess moderate dielectric constant ɛr (140-349), higher thickness mode electromechanical coupling coefficient kt (44%) and higher figure of merit FOM (1896-7169 fm2/N) compared to monolithic BT ceramic. The fabricated composites also possess favorable properties such as lower acoustic impedance Z (8-13 Mrayl) and lower elastic stiffness C33D (36-65 GPa) compared to single phase BT ceramic. These results indicate that BT/monothane-A70 composites have the potential to be used as transducer in various applications.