Electrical properties, strain stability and electrostrictive behavior in 0.5BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3-(0.5-x)Ba0.7Ca0.3TiO3-xBa0.7Sr0.3TiO3 lead-free ceramics

To obtain outstanding electrical properties of Barium titanate based ceramics to meet the requirements of the practical applications, a new system of BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3-(0.5-x)Ba0.7Ca0.3TiO3-xBa(0.7)Sr(0.3)TiO(3) (BZTBCT-xBST, 0 <= x <= 0.5) lead-free material was designed. A systematic study about piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and strain properties was carried out in the ceramics. The BZT-BCT-xBST ceramics with x = 0.3 exhibit an enhanced electrical property (e.g., d(33)similar to 540 pC/N, k(p)similar to 0.42, epsilon(r) similar to 4560, tan delta similar to 0.023, and strain0.132% @30 kV/cm) as well as a good electrostrictive behavior (Q(33) similar to 0.0366m(4)C(-2), Strain0.08%), and Q33 value is compared to PZT-baesd materials. In addition, the influence of external fields (temperature, electric field) on strain stability reveals that the strain under high driving electric fields has comparatively good temperature stability. We firmly believe that such a work can be beneficial to the practical process of BT-based ceramics. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.