Quenching effects on electrical properties of Cu-doped (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-based solid solution ceramics

Quenching effects on electrical and piezoelectric properties were investigated for Cu-doped (Bi 1/2 Na 1/2 )TiO 3 (BNT)-based solid solution systems, 0.90(Bi 1/2 Na 1/2 )TiO 3 –0.06BaTiO 3 –0.04(Bi 1/2 Li 1/2 )TiO 3 (BNLBT), aiming to increase the depolarization temperature T d without deteriorating the piezoelectric properties. A dense BNLBT ceramics doped with CuO 1.0 wt% was fabricated by a conventional ceramic fabrication process with a low-sintering temperature at 940 °C, which is 200 °C lower than those for non-doped BNLBT ceramics. In addition, the CuO-doped BNLBT ceramic was quenched immediately after the sintering process at 940 °C, and the piezoelectric constant and T d were measured. The T d values of CuO-doped BNLBT systems with and without quenching were 143 and 78 °C, respectively. This showed that T d Cu-doped ceramics increased by approximately 60 °C due to quenching. In addition, the electromechanical coupling factors k 33 of quenched and non-quenched Cu-doped BNLBT ceramics were approximately 0.58, showing no significant deterioration of piezoelectric activity caused by quenching. Graphic abstract