Excellent hardening effect in lead-free piezoceramics by embedding local Cu-doped defect dipoles in phase boundary engineering
Piezoceramics for high-power applications require both high piezoelectric coefficient (d<sub>33</sub>) and mechanical quality factor (Q<sub>m</sub>). However, the trade-off between them poses a significant challenge in achieving high values simultaneously, which is more prominent in lead-free piezoceramics. Here, we propose a new strategy, local Cu-acceptor defect dipoles embedded orthorhombic-tetragonal phase boundary engineering (O-T PBE), to balance d<sub>33</sub> and Q<sub>m</sub> in potassium sodium niobate piezoceramics. This is validated in 0.95(K<sub>0.48</sub>Na<sub>0.52</sub>)NbO<sub>3</sub>-0.05(Bi<sub>0.5</sub>Na<sub>0.5</sub>)HfO<sub>3</sub>-0.2%molFe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-xmol%CuO ceramics. Our strategy simultaneously maintains the O-T PBE and introduces local dimeric <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow> <mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>C</mml:mi> <mml:mi>u</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>″</mml:mo> <mml:mo>'</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>O</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>∙</mml:mo> <mml:mo>∙</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>'</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> and trimeric <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mfenced> <mml:mrow> <mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>O</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>∙</mml:mo> <mml:mo>∙</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>C</mml:mi> <mml:mi>u</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>″</mml:mo> <mml:mo>'</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>O</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>∙</mml:mo> <mml:mo>∙</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:mrow> </mml:mfenced> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>∙</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> defects. The dimeric defects form defect dipole polarization that pins domain wall motion, while the trimeric ones introduce the local structural heterogeneity that leads to nano-scale multi-phase coexistence and abundant nano-domains. Encouragingly, for the Cu-doped sample with x = 1, Q<sub>m</sub> increases by a factor of 4, but d<sub>33</sub> only decreases by 1/5 (i.e., achieving a d<sub>33</sub> of 340 pC/N and a Q<sub>m</sub> of 256). Our research provides a new paradigm for balancing d<sub>33</sub> and Q<sub>m</sub> in lead-free piezoceramics, which holds promise for high-power applications.
Authors
- Jiagang Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9960-9275)
- Chao Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8016-0359)
- Xinyue Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7286-1374)
- Xiang Lv (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6101-7568)
- Xixiang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3478-6414)
- Zhi Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9971-9338)
- Yinchang Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5201-6448)
- Junwei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6327-707X)
- Chen Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3719-0421)
- Daniel Q. Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2282-2000)
- Zhipeng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4444-089X)
- Ruihong Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0761-0915)
- Shiyang Wei
Institutions
- Xidian University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CN)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (SA)
- Lanzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-03-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58269-5
- Citations
- 20
- Primary Topic
- Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.84