Effects of foam composition on the microstructure and piezoelectric properties of macroporous PZT ceramics from ultrastable particle-stabilized foams

Porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics could be produced by combining the particle-stabilized foams and the gelcasting technique. In this study, the foaming capacity of particle-stabilized wet foams was tailored by changing the concentration of valeric acid and pH values of suspension. Accordingly, porous PZT ceramics with different porosity, microstructure, dielectric and piezoelectric properties were prepared with the respective wet foam. Increase in the porosity led to a reduction in the relative permittivity (εr), a moderate decline in the longitudinal piezoelectric strain coefficient (d33) and a rapid decline in the transverse piezoelectric strain coefficient (d31), which endowed porous PZT ceramics with a high value of hydrostatic strain coefficient (dh) and hydrostatic figure of merit (HFOM). As a result, the prepared samples possessed a maximal HFOM value of 19,520×10−15 Pa−1 with the porosity of 76.3%. The acoustic impedance (Z) of specimens had the lowest value of 1.35 Mrayl, which could match well with those of water or biological tissue; accordingly, the material would be beneficial in underwater sonar detectors or medical ultrasonic imaging.