Excellent temperature stability of strain in PZ-PT-BNT ternary ceramics

Lead-based Pb(Zr, Ti)O 3 ceramics have been widely applied in piezoelectric actuators, and yet high temperature stability and large strain have been pursued for further application. In this work, a novel PbZrO 3 –PbTiO 3 -(Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 )TiO 3 (PZ-PT-BNT) piezoelectric ceramic is designed and prepared by solid-state route. It is found that the introduction of BNT constituent enhances the relaxation behavior of PZ-PT ceramic, inhibits the abrupt change in dielectric properties near Curie temperature , and increases the proportion of tetragonal phase with high temperature stability. Meanwhile, the patterns of electric domains are intentionally modified by adjusting composition of PZ-PT-BNT. Short and broad electric domains in PZ-PT-0.03BNT ceramic are observed by piezoresponse force microscopy, which are insensitive to temperature and have faster response under electric field, contributing to strain characteristics. As a result, through integrating phase structure and electric domain configuration, a strain of 0.21% and excellent temperature stability where the variation of strain is less than 8% in the temperature range of 25–250 °C are achieved in PZ-PT-0.03BNT ceramic. The findings provide an effective strategy for improving the strain stability of PZ-PT-based piezoelectric ceramics, and demonstrate that PZ-PT-BNT ceramics have potential application prospects in high-temperature piezoelectric actuators.