Synthesis and electromechanical properties of LiTaO3-modified BiFeO3-BaTiO3 piezoceramics

In this work, lead-free MnO2 (0.6 mol%) and CuO (0.4 mol%) mixed (1-x)(0.675BiFeO3 - 0.325BaTiO3) - xLiTaO3 (BF-BT-xLT+MC, with x = 0-2 mol%) ceramics were fabricated by a conventional solid-state reaction followed by quenching process. The crystal structure and microstructure of the BF-BT-xLT+MC ceramics were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. Enhancement in dielectric, ferroelectric and field-induced strain properties were observed at optimum amount of LT addition in BF-BT+MC ceramics. The ferroelectric loops shows significant enhancement in polarization response for 1 mol% LT-modified in BF-BT+MC composition. In addition, for the same composition a substantial improvement (70%) in comparison with the pure BF-BT ceramics was realized in the dynamic piezoelectric coefficient (d*33 = Smax/Emax).