Manufacture and characterization of high activity piezoelectric fibres

Piezoelectric fibres are finding increasing application in a variety of piezoelectric composites, including active fibre composites (AFCs). This paper describes the manufacture and characterization of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) fibres manufactured by viscous plastic processing (VPP). The manufacturing method will be described along with a systematic characterization of the macrostructure, microstructure, phase composition and low and high field piezoelectric properties. A comparison with other available PZT fibres will be made, which demonstrates that the VPP PZT fibres display high piezoelectric coefficients.