Effect of different templates on structure evolution and large strain response under a low electric field in <0Â 0Â l>-textured lead-free BNT-based piezoelectric ceramics

<0 0 l>-textured 0.83Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.17Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 (BNT-BKT) ceramics with high degree of texturing (>80%) were synthesized by templated grain growth using different perovskite plate-like BaTiO3, SrTiO3 and NaNbO3 as template particles to develop lead-free piezoelectric materials with an excellent actuating performance. The effects of different template particles addition to BNT-BKT ceramics on the grain orientation, structure evolution, phase stability and macroscopic functional properties was systematically investigated. BaTiO3 template particles addition to form <0 0 l>-textured BNT-BKT-BT textured ceramics suppresses an electric-field-induced long-range ferroelectric order, giving rise to a high field-induced Smax/Emax of 710 pm/V under a relatively low driving field of 45 kV/cm compared with existing lead-free Bi-perovskite ceramics. In particular, temperature-dependent strain response reveals that <0 0 l>-textured BNT-BKT-5BT ceramics exhibit not only large Smax/Emax at a low driving field of 45 kV/cm at room temperature but also enhanced the temperature stability of Smax/Emax featured by large Smax/Emax of 517 pm/V at high temperature.