Mechanical bending strength of (Bi0.5Na0.5) TiO3-based lead-Free piezoelectric ceramics

(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3 [BNT] is expected as one of candidate lead-free materials because these ceramics show relatively good high-power piezoelectric properties. In this study, we tried to understand the bending strength and fracture behavior of the BNT-based ceramics. To measure the bending strength, a three-point bending test on the basis of JIS was conducted using 12.0 × 4.0 × 1.0 mm3 specimens. An average bending strength, σA, of pure BNT ceramics sintered at 1100 °C for 2, 12 and 24 h were 217, 195 and 187 MPa, respectively. It is cleared that the σA increased with decreasing the sintering time, (grain size and pore size). We also investigated the bending strength of Nb2O5 doped BNT ceramics [BNT-Nb x, x = 0.05 ∼ 1.5 wt%] and MnCO3 doped BNT ceramics [BNT-Mn x, x = 0.5 and 1.0 wt%]. Values of the σA of BNT-Nb 0.5 and BNT-Mn 0.5 were 222, and 188 MPa, respectively. It is clarified that soft dopants (Nb) can improve the bending strength of BNT-based ceramics. Additionally, hot-pressed BNT [HP-BNT] were sintered at 1050 °C for 5 h, and the σA of HP-BNT was 245 MPa.