Effect of pore volume fraction on energy-harvesting capabilities of freeze-casted porous 0.63[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]–0.37[PbTiO3] ceramic

Despite the excellent electromechanical properties of relaxor ferroelectric 0.63[Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 ]–0.37[PbTiO 3 ] (0.63PMN-0.37PT), the energy-harvesting capabilities of freeze-casted porous of this material remained unexplored. Therefore, in this study, 3-1-type freeze-casted porous 0.63PMN-0.37PT samples with different porosity contents were fabricated and their voltage output (V out ), piezoelectric voltage coefficient (g 33 ), and energy-harvesting figure of merit (FOM 33 ) were determined. The results demonstrated that V out increased with the applied force across all porosity levels. It also increased when the porosity increased to 30.5 vol.%, but changed insignificantly with an increase in the porosity from 30.5 to 51.5 vol.%. However, it again increased considerably when the porosity increased beyond 51.5 vol.%. The values of g 33 and FOM 33 for the freeze-casted porous 0.63PMN-0.37PT were almost 50 % higher than those for porous samples of other piezoceramics reported in the literature. Therefore, this study suggests that freeze-casted porous 0.63PMN-0.37PT is a potential option for energy-harvesting applications.