High pyroelectric response of low-temperature sintered Pb0.87Ba0.1La0.02(Zr0.7Sn0.24Ti0.06)O3 antiferroelectric ceramics

Pb0.87Ba0.1La0.02(Zr0.7Sn0.24Ti0.06)O3 antiferroelectric ceramics with high pyroelectric response were first prepared at a temperature as low as 1000 °C using PbO–B2O3 glass. The result showed that suitable PbO content in PbO–B2O3 glass was good for the improvement of electrical properties of antiferroelectric ceramics. Besides, it was observed that with the increase of sintering time, the AFE phase was gradual instable, which was attributed that B3+ with small ions radius replacing Ti4+ with large ions radius caused the increase of tolerance factor of antiferroelectric ceramics, and the dielectric peak became steep due to the decrease of glass content with small dielectric constant. Further, The maximum pyroelectric coefficient of 9050 μC/m2K and maximum figure of merit of 20.7 × 10−5 Pa−0.5 were obtained in Pb0.87Ba0.1La0.02(Zr0.7Sn0.24Ti0.06)O3 antiferroelectric ceramics with 1 wt% 0.8PbO–0.2B2O3 glass sintered at 1000 °C for 12 h, which are comparable with that of phase transition pyroelectric materials BST and BZT sintered at as high as 1300 °C. Our results open up the way to low-temperature sintering of PZST based antiferroelectric ceramics with high pyroelectric response and provide a basis for antiferroelectric materials used in thick-film based uncooled infrared detector.

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► PZST antiferroelectric ceramics were first prepared at 1000 °C.
► The merit at 1000 °C is comparable to that of BST at a high temperature sintering.
► Large merit is because dielectric peak became steep under an electric field.
► Large merit at low temperature provides a basis for thick-film based detectors.