Charge accumulation in grain boundary promotes intergranular fracture of lead zirconate titanate piezoceramics under mechanical and electric load

This paper presents the surface potential distributions of pores, grain boundaries (GBs) and indentation cracks of lead zirconate titanate piezoceramics. The pores, GBs and indentation cracks in poled samples are higher potential regions in comparison to other regions. However, GBs and indentation cracks have no distinguishing potential feature in unpoled samples. Coupled with an investigation of the fracture modes, the role of the electrostatic repulsive force induced by charges accumulated in GBs on the ferroelectric fracture is discussed.