Eco-friendly Ceramic Materials for Shear Mode Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Eco-friendly $(Na,K)NbO_3$ (NKN)-based piezoelectric ceramic materials were fabricated by conventional ceramic method for shear mode piezoelectric energy harvesting application. $NKN-LiTaO_3$ (LT) based compositions were adopted for the high $d_{15}{\times}g_{15}$ which is proportional to harvested energy density. The composition $0.935(Na_{0.535}K_{0.485})NbO_3-0.065LiTaO_3$ was found to be lie on the boundary of tetragonal and orthorhombic phases. With reducing Ta content, the dielectric constant decreased gradually while maintaining high $d_{15}$, which resulted in increased $d_{15}{\times}g_{15}$. The composition $0.935(Na_{0.535}K_{0.485})NbO_3-0.065Li(Nb_{0.990}Ta_{0.010})O_3$ was found to possess excellent piezoelectric and electromechanical properties ($d_{15}{\times}g_{15}=29\;pm^2/N$, $d_{15}$ = 417 pC/N, $k_{15}$ = 0.55), and high curie temperature ($T_c=455^{\circ}C$).