Lead-free (Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃ (BNT)-based incipient piezoelectrics are highly promising for high strain actuators, but the high electric fields (4 ~ 6 kV/mm) required for activation limit practical device integration. In the current literature, large strains are frequently attributed to local structural variations like microscopic core-shell architectures. This work systematically investigates an alternative pathway by introducing A-site Strontium (Sr) excess non-stoichiometry into 0.74(Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃‒0.26SrTiO₃ (BNST26) ceramics. Microstructural and X-ray diffraction analyses reveal highly dense, uniform matrices completely devoid of micro-scale core-shell boundaries or macroscopic symmetry distortions, revealing that Sr non-stoichiometry diverges from typical Bi-excess mechanisms. Interestingly, despite negligible variations in overall macro-scale strain behavior across the composition series, a peak normalized strain (S_max/E_max) of approximately 804 pm/V is achieved at a low driving field of 2 kV/mm for the 1 mol% Sr-excess specimen (x = 0.010). These results indicate that while Sr non-stoichiometry weakly influences nanoscale stability, it can be inferred that subtle modifications of local defect configurations optimize switching energy barriers, enabling high-strain, low-drive-field performance in lead-free relaxors.

NTC (negative temperature coefficient) thermistors are semiconductor ceramics whose resistance decreases with increasing temperature, making them essential components in various temperature sensing applications. Typically, ceramic materials are sintered at high temperatures exceeding 1,150°C. However, in laminated devices incorporating internal electrodes, co-sintering can lead to cracking and mechanical failure due to mismatches in the thermal expansion coefficients between the ceramic layers and metal-based electrodes. Moreover, the use of noble metal electrodes increases production costs. To address these challenges, a low-temperature sintering approach is required. Previous studies have demonstrated that incorporating glass frit can reduce the sintering temperature of ceramics, although this often results in increased electrical resistance. In this study, NiMnCoO₄ (NMC) ceramics, as a representative NTC thermistor composition, were prepared with the addition of 10 wt% glass frit. To mitigate the resulting increase in resistivity, trace amounts (1 wt%) of various metal oxides, including CuO, ZnO, and MnO, were introduced. Among these, the addition of CuO notably decreased both the resistivity and B constant values. In contrast, MnO had little effect on resistivity, while ZnO led to an increase. With respect to the B25/85 constant, samples containing MnO and ZnO exhibited higher values than those without metal oxide additives. These findings indicate that the incorporation of 1 wt% CuO is effective in reducing the increased resistivity in NMC ceramics subjected to low-temperature sintering via glass frit addition.

NTC thermistors are essential components widely used for temperature sensing in various electronic sensor applications. However, conventional NTC thermistor ceramics typically require high sintering temperatures above 1150℃, necessitating the use of high-cost noble metal electrodes such as palladium (Pd) or platinum (Pt), which increases the overall manufacturing cost. In this study, low-melting-point oxides were successfully introduced as sintering aids to reduce the sintering temperature of NiMnCoO₄-based semiconducting ceramics. As the additive content increased, the B constant and average grain size exhibited an increasing trend, while the sample containing 5 wt% additives showed the lowest room-temperature resistivity. Furthermore, samples sintered at 1000℃ demonstrated slightly higher room-temperature resistivity and B constant values compared to those sintered at 1150℃. These results confirm that the addition of low-melting-point oxides is effective in lowering the sintering temperature of NiMnCoO₄ ceramics, suggesting the potential for reducing production costs and improving design flexibility in thermistor fabrication.

(Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃(BNT) piezoelectric ceramics are one of the promising materials that can replace Pb(Zr, Ti)O₃(PZT) piezoelectric ceramics due to the high electromechanical strain properties. However, it is still difficult to use practical applications because the required electric field for inducing electromechanical strain is relatively higher than that of PZT ceramics. To overcome this problem, it has been intensively studied on doping impurity or modifying other ABO₃ for BNTbased piezoelectric ceramics. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of La₂O₃ doping on the phase transition behavior and electromechanical strain properties in BNT-SrTiO₃ (BNT-ST) lead-free piezoelectric ceramics. In the case of the temperaturedependent dielectric properties, it was confirmed that a phase transition from ferroelectrics to relaxors is induced with increasing La₂O₃ content. As a result, the electromechanical strain properties of BNT-ST ceramics were improved. The highest Smax/Emax value corresponding to 300 pm/V was obtained at 2 mol% La₂O₃-dopped BNT-ST ceramics. Accordingly, this study successfully demonstrated that La₂O₃ doping is effective on the inducing phase transition from ferroelectrics to relaxors and the improving electromechanical strain properties of BNT-ST lead-free piezoelectric ceramics.

Citations

• Recent Progress in Relaxor-State Design of BNT-Based Ceramics for High-Efficiency Energy-Storage Capacitors
  Yeseul Lim, Geon-Tae Hwang
  Journal of Electrical and Electronic Materials.2026; 39(3): 225.     CrossRef

Piezoelectric ceramics play an important role in various electronic applications. However, traditional ceramics are difficult to be used in some complicated structures, due to their low flexibility and high brittleness. To solve this problem, this study prepared and investigated ceramic/polymer composites that can utilize a good flexibility of polymers. Polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) and 0.77(Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃-0.23SrTiO₃ (BNST23) ceramics were selected to fabricate the composites. Ceramic/polymer composites were prepared using various volume fractions of BNST23 ceramics. The distribution of piezoceramic particles in BNST23/PVDF-TrFE composites was investigated using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The dielectric and piezoelectric properties of the composites were significantly influenced by the volume fraction of the piezoelectric ceramics. As a result, the highest piezoelectric constant (d33) of 56 pC/N was obtained in a composites with 70% volume fraction of BNST23 ceramics. Accordingly, it is expected that BNST23/PVDF-TrFE composites can be applied to various sensor applications.

The measurement of strain under an electric field has been widely employed to comprehend the fundamental principles of electro-mechanical responses in ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and electrostrictive materials. In particular, understanding the strain properties of piezoelectric materials in response to electrical stimulation is crucial for researching and developing components such as piezoelectric actuators, acoustic devices, and ultrasonic generators. This tutorial paper introduces the components and operational principles of the linear variable differential transducer (LVDT), a widely used displacement measurement device in various industries. Additionally, we present the configuration of an experimental setup using LVDT to measure the strain characteristics of ferroelectric, piezoelectric, or electrostrictive materials under the application of an electric field. This paper includes simple measurement results and analyses obtained through the LVDT experimental setup, providing valuable information on research methods for the electro-mechanical interactions of various materials.

Piezoelectric ceramics play an important role in electrical and electronic devices such as sensors, actuators, and microelectronic devices. However, traditional ceramics are difficult to be used in various process industries due to their high brittleness and low flexibility. Therefore, piezoelectric paint sensors have been designed for application to the curved surfaces of complicated structures. Furthermore, recently, significant attention has been focused on the development of paint sensors that can be used as structure health monitoring sensors for vibration, impact, and acoustic emission. Several studies have successfully demonstrated the possibility that smart paint sensors can take the place of traditional ceramic sensors. In this review, we briefly introduce the concept of the piezoelectric paint sensors and the expected application field as well as their preparation and history.

It was reported that a tetragonal phase can be stabilized with maintaining good piezoelectric properties when Na_0.5K_0.5NbO₃ (KNN) is modified with 0.06 mol SrTiO₃. However, such a high amount of SrTiO₃ leads not only to poor sinterability but low Curie temperature (TC). To maintain high TC with good piezoelectric properties in KNN-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics, this study investigates the effect of Li-doping on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of 0.96Na_0.5K_0.5NbO₃-0.04SrTiO₃ (KNN-4ST) ceramics. As a result, the orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition was observed at 2 mol% Li₂CO₃ modified KNN-4ST ceramics, whose TC, d33 and kp values are 328℃, 165pC/N and 0.33, respectively.

This study investigated crystal structures, microstructures, and electric-field-induced strain (EFIS) properties of Bibased lead-free ferroelectric/relaxor composites. Bi_1/2(Na_0.82K_0.18)_1/2TiO₃ (BNKT) as a ferroelectric material and 0.78Bi_1/2(Na_0.78K_0.22)_1/2TiO₃-0.02LaFeO₃ (BNKT2LF) as a relaxor material were synthesized using a conventional solid-state reaction method, and the resulting BNKT2LF powders were subjected to high-energy ball milling (HEBM) after calcination. As a result, HEBM proved a larger average grain size of sintered samples compared to conventional ball milling (CBM). In addition, the increased sintering time led to grain growth. Furthermore, HEBM treatment and sintering time demonstrated a significant effect on EFIS of BNKT/BNKT2LF composites. At 6 kV/mm, 0.35% of the maximum strain (S_max) was observed in the HEBM sample sintered for 12 h. The unipolar strain curves of CBM samples were almost linear, indicating almost no phase transitions, while HEBM samples displayed phase transitions at 5~6 kV/mm for all sintering time levels, showing the highest S_max/E_max value of 700 pm/V. These results indicated that HEBM treatment with a long sintering time might significantly enhance the electromechanical strain properties of BNT-based ceramics.

We investigated the microstructure, crystal structure, dielectric, and elecromechanical strain properties of lead-free BaTiO₃ (BT)-modified (Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃-SrTiO₃ (BNT-ST) piezoelectric ceramics. Samples were prepared by a conventional ceramic processing route. Temperature dependent dielectric properties confirmed that a phase transition from a nonergodic relaxor to an ergodic relaxor was induced when the BT concentration reached 1.5 mol%, interestingly, where the average grain size reached a maximum value of 4.5 μm. At the same time, enhanced electromechanical strain (S_max/E_max = 600 pm/V) was obtained. It is suggested that the induced ferroelectric-relaxor phase transition by the BT modification is responsible for the enhancement of electromechanical strain in 1.5 mol% BT-modified BNT-ST ceramics.

This study investigated microstructures, crystal structures, polarization, dielectric and electromechanical properties of 0.76Bi_1/2Na_1/2TiO₃-0.24SrTiO₃ (BNT-24ST)-based piezoceramcs by adding Li₂CO₃ and B₂O₃ (LB) as sintering aids for low-temperature sintering. All samples were successfully synthesized using conventional solid-state reaction method and sintered at 950, 1,000, 1,050, 1,100 and 1,175℃ for 2 hours. Without LB, specimens required sintering temperatures over 1,175℃ for sufficient densification, while the addition of 0.10-mol LB decreased the sintering temperatures down to 950℃. The average grain size and dielectric properties of BNT-24ST-10LB ceramics were enhanced with increasing sintering temperature. We found that the low-temperature sintered BNT-24ST piezoceramics by adding LB showed the d₃₃*value of 402 pm/V at 4 kV/mm after sintering at 1,050℃, which was better than that of high-temperature fired specimens sintered at 1,175℃ without LB (242 pm/V). We believe that the results of this study promise a candidate for low-cost multilayer ceramic actuator applications.

This study investigated the structural, dielectric, ferroelectric, and strain properties of (0.98-x)Bi_1/2Na_1/2TiO₃- 0.02BiFeO_3-xSrTiO₃ (BNT-BF-100xST, x＝0.20, 0.22, 0.24, 0.26, and 0.28). All samples were successfully synthesized using the conventional solid-state reaction method and sintered at 1,175℃ for 2 h. The average grain size of the BNT-BF-100x ceramics decreased with increasing ST content. Furthermore, we observed that the ferroelectric- relaxor transition temperature (T_F-R) decreased with increasing ST content, which eventually vanished in the BNT-BF-24ST ceramics. The results indicated that a ferroelectric to relaxor phase transition could be induced by ST modification. Consequently, a large electromechanical strain of 633 pm/V at 4 kV/mm was observed for the BNT-BF-26ST ceramics. These results imply that our materials have the competitive advantage of larger strain under lower operating field conditions compared with other BNT-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics. We expect that BNT-BF-ST lead-free piezoelectric ceramics are promising candidates as a novel ternary BNT-based system and can find potential applications in actuators.

This study investigated the microstructure and piezoelectric properties of lead-free 0.74(Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO3-0.26SrTiO₃ (BNST26) piezoelectric ceramics sintered using a microwave furnace. For comparison, specimens were also prepared using a conventional furnace sintering (CFS). Average grain sizes of 2.4 μm and 3.2 μm were obtained in the sample sintered at 1,100℃ for 5 min using microwave sintering (MWS) and at 1,175℃ for 2 h using CFS, respectively. To quantify the changes in the microstructures and electrical properties according to the sintering conditions, the polarization hysteresis, bipolar and unipolar strain curves, and temperature dependence of permittivity were evaluated. As a result, it was determined that the Pmax (maximum polarization), Pr (remanent polarization) and Smax (maximum strain) values tend to increase with the average grain size. Based on these results, it is concluded that the MWS method can produce lead-free ceramics with superior performance in a relatively short time compared to the conventional CFS method.

In this study, we investigated the optimum calcination temperature of lead-free 0.74(Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃-0.26SrTiO₃ (BNST) piezoelectric ceramics by analyzing the crystal structure, dielectric properties, and electric field-induced strain behavior. BNST ceramics prepared by conventional solid-state reaction methods at various calcination temperatures according to the industrial standard. All samples of BNST ceramics were subsequently sintered at 1,175℃ for 2 h. Crystal structure classification of the ceramics showed a single perovskite phase, with no second phase detectable for the samples calcined at 750℃ or higher. BNST samples calcined at 850℃ exhibited the most optimal values for itsand the common physical parameters of density = 5.518 g/㎤, ε = 1,871.837, tanδ = 0.047, and d₃₃^* = 874 pm/V.