High strain in (K0.40Na0.60)(Nb0.955Sb0.045)O3-Bi0.50Na0.50ZrO3 lead-free ceramics with large piezoelectricity

We have attained both large piezoelectricity and high strain in (1 - x)(K0.40Na0.60)(Nb0.955Sb0.045)O-3-xBi(0.50)Na(0.50)ZrO(3) [(1 - x)KNNS-xBNZ] lead-free ceramics by forming a rhombohedral (R) and tetragonal (T) phase boundary. The ceramics with 0.035 < x < 0.05 possess R and T phases' coexistence. A large d(33) value of similar to 450 pC N-1 has been attained when the x value reached 0.04 owing to the involved R-T phase boundary, which is higher with respect to d(33) similar to 416 pC N-1 of textured (K,Na,Li)(Nb,Ta,Sb)O-3 ceramics reported by Saito et al. [Nature, 2004, 432, 84]. In addition, it is worth noting that such a ceramic simultaneously possesses a high electric field-induced strain (0.2%) under a low driving electric field of similar to 2 kV mm(-1), and its S-max/E-max value is equal to be 1071 pm V-1. As a result, we can believe that the (1 - x)KNNS-xBNZ ceramics will become one of the promising material systems in the practical applications of electrical devices.