Low-temperature sintered PMnS–PZT multilayer-ceramic for nano-step piezomotor application

Multilayer piezoceramic featured with low driving voltage and large generation force is a basic core component of piezoelectric motors. It has been found that Pb(Mn1/3Sb2/3)O3–Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PMnS–PZT) piezoceramic is a powerful system as it simultaneously exhibits a large piezoelectric coefficient (d) and a high mechanical quality factor (Q). However, a quite high sintering temperature (> 1200 ℃) is required, which limits the low-temperature co-firing preparation of the PMnS–PZT multilayer ceramic. In this work, we report a high-performance PMnS–PZT multilayer ceramic using Li2CO3 as a sintering aid and a linear piezoelectric motor based on the multilayer ceramic. The investigations show that a 0.4 wt% Li2CO3-modified PMnS–PZT ceramic sintered at 980 ℃ exhibits excellent ferroelectric, piezoelectric and electromechanical coupling properties. Furthermore, a 12-layer structured linear piezomotor was fabricated based on the Li2CO3-modified PMnS–PZT multilayer ceramic (with Ag/Pd internal electrodes), which shows a superhigh unit volume driving force in comparison with the previously reported piezoelectric motors and a 50 nm step resolution. The obtained results indicated that Li2CO3-modified PMnS–PZT ceramic and its multilayer structure have great potential for high-power device applications. [Display omitted] •Achieving the lower-temperature sintering for PMnS–PZT ceramics.•A 12-layer Li2CO3-modified PMnS–PZT piezoceramics was successfully fabricated.•A linear piezomotor was fabricated based on the multilayer PMnS–PZT ceramics.•A superhigh unit volume driving force of as high as 11.0 mN/mm3 was achieved.