LAUSR

Low-temperature sintered random and textured 36PIN–30PMN–34PT piezoelectric ceramics were successfully synthesized at a temperature as low as 950°C using Li2CO3 as sintering aids. The effects of Li2CO3 addition on microstructure, dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties in 36PIN–30PMN–34PT ternary system were systematically investigated. The results showed that the grain size of the specimens increased with the addition of sintering aids. The optimum properties for the random samples were obtained at 0.5 wt% Li2CO3 addition, with piezoelectric constant d33 of 450 pC/N, planar electromechanical coupling coefficient kp of 49%, peak permittivity emax of 25 612, remanent polarization Pr of 36.3 μC/cm2. Moreover, the low-temperature-sintered textured samples at 0.5 wt% Li2CO3 addition exhibited a higher piezoelectric constant d33 of 560 pC/N. These results indicated that the low-temperature-sintered 36PIN–30PMN–34PT piezoelectric ceramics were very promising candidates for the multilayer piezoelectric applications.