Sb 2 O 3 ‐modified lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramics with enhancing piezoelectricity and low loss

Abstract Lead zirconate titanate (PZT)–based piezoelectric ceramics as important functional materials are widely used in many electromechanical devices. The piezoelectric coefficient and mechanical quality factor are vital property parameters for piezoelectric applications. However, the piezoelectric coefficient is inversely proportional to the mechanical quality factor, resulting in a strong limitation among wide applications. Herein, piezoelectric ceramics composed of ( x Sb 2 O 3 , 0.3‐wt% MnCO 3 )‐doped (Pb 0.92 Sr 0.08 )(Zr 0.533 Ti 0.443 Nb 0.024 )O 3 (( x Sb, Mn)‐PSZTN) were prepared by a conventional solid‐state process. The excellent piezoelectric properties d 33 = 554 pC/N, k p = 0.645, and high mechanical quality factor Q m = 540 were simultaneously obtained at x = 0.1 ceramic in the morphotropic phase boundary region. The enhancement of piezoelectric properties was mainly due to the contribution of irreversible domain wall motion. In particular, the regulation of different defect chemical reactions on the properties showed that Sb 2 O 3 could play the role of both donor and acceptor dopant. This work demonstrated that (0.1Sb, Mn)‐PSZTN ceramic was a good candidate material for high‐power piezoelectric devices.