Piezoelectric properties of 0.5(PbNi1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.5Pb(Zr0.32Ti0.68)O3 ceramics prepared by solid state reaction and mechanochemical activation-assisted method

0.5(PbNi1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.5Pb(Zr0.32Ti0.68)O3 (PNN–PZT) ceramics were successfully prepared from a mechanochemical activation-assisted method (MAAM), which skips the calcination step(s) at an intermediate temperature which is otherwise required for solid state reaction. A detailed investigation has been carried out on the structural and piezoelectric properties of these samples. Improvement in piezoelectric properties was observed in PNN–PZT ceramics processed by mechanochemical activation-assisted method. The value of piezoelectric charge coefficient (d33) is ∼710 pC/N for PNN–PZT ceramics processed by mechanochemical activation-assisted method, which is higher than ceramics obtained by solid state reaction (615 pC/N), with improvement of about 15.45%. The value of strain is also higher (0.21%) for mechanochemical activation-assisted method whereas it is 0.15% for ceramics obtained by solid state reaction at 40 kV/cm.