A brief review of Ba(Ti0.8Zr0.2)O3-(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics: Past, present and future perspectives

As one kind of most crucial and emerging lead-free piezoelectric systems, Ba(Ti0.8Zr0.2)O3-(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 (BCZT) based lead-free piezoceramics have attracted worldwide attention in recent years. Much progress has been made, however, a summary which covers both the recent progress and the remained problems is urgently needed to further push this field forward. In this review, a brief background of the development of BCZT based lead-free piezoceramics was illustrated firstly. Then, the internal mechanism for the high piezoelectric response would be elaborated. Current research status was discussed in detail in the third section. Various strategies including: (1) Using distinct synthesis routes, (2) adopting different sintering techniques, (3) doping with foreign ions and/or second components, (4) grain size control, were exploited to improve the comprehensive performance and in turn broaden their application areas. In this part, some recently representative works were touched in detail and several existing problems were pointed out. Last, some critical comments (some thoughts related to the potential and future development of BCZT system) were given based on the current research status and existing problems. All in all, this review is devoted to summarizing the milestones in the past, classifying selected recent works and analyzing the prospects of BCZT based ceramics. It can be expected that, this first review that concentrates on BCZT based ceramics obviously would provide useful guidance for the research community.