Low temperature sintering and piezoelectric properties in Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3-Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3-Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramics

High-power ceramics of the composition 0.8Pb(Zro.5Ti(0.5))O-3-0.2Pb[(Zn0.8Ni0.2)(1/3)Nb-2/3]O-3 (0.8PZT-0.2PZNN) + 0.5 wt% MnO2 have excellent piezoelectric and dielectric properties such as d(33) = 320pC/N, epsilon(T)(33)/epsilon(o) = 1227, k(p) = 0.54, and Q(m) = 1265. However, the sintering temperature of this composition is high, approximately 1200 degrees C, restricting the use of cheap base metal electrodes in the fabrication of multilayer components. In this study, we provide a solution to this problem and report a low sintering temperature high-power composition in a PZT-PZNN system. CuO and Al2O3 were selected as sintering agents. It was found that the addition of CuO can reduce the sintering temperature to 920 degrees C, but it can also significantly reduce the piezoelectric properties. The reduction of Q(m) magnitude was 81% when 0.5 wt% CuO was added. The addition of Al2O3 as a sintering agent was found to improve Q(m) magnitude but significant reductions in piezoelectric and dielectric properties were observed. The addition of excess ZnO and NiO was found to improve the density and piezoelectric properties, but it was also found to reduce Q(m) magnitude. Consequently, the optimization of the concentration of the sintering agents was carried out, and the optimized low sintering temperature high-power composition was found to be 0.875Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O-3-0-125Pb[(Zn0.8Ni0.2)(1.5/3)Nb-2/3]O3 + 0.5 wt% MnO2 + 0.2 wt% CuO + 0.3 wt% Al2O3. The piezoelectric properties of the specimens of this composition sintered at 920 degrees C were found to be k(p) 0.581, Q(m) = 809, d(33) = 345 pC/N, epsilon(T)(3)/epsilon(o) = 1345, and T-c = 330 degrees C.