Molten-Salt Processed Potassium Sodium Niobate Single-Crystal Microcuboids with Dislocation-Induced Nanodomain Structures and Relaxor Ferroelectric Behavior

We herein report a facile molten-salt synthetic strategy to prepare transparent and uniform Li, Ba-doped (K,Na)NbO3 (KNN) single-crystal microcuboids (similar to 80 mu m). By controlling the degree of supersaturation, different growth modes were found and the single crystal microcuboids were synthesized via island-like oriented attachment of KNN particles onto the growing surface. The distinct relaxor ferroelectric (RFE) properties were achieved in the single-crystal microcuboids, which were different from the normal ferroelectric (FE) properties found in their KNN ceramic counterparts prepared through a solid-state reaction using the same initial precursors. The RFE properties were realized by dislocation-induced nanodomain formation during oriented attachment growth of single-crystal microcuboids, which is different from the current strategies to derive the nanodomains by the local compositional inhomogeneity or the application of an electric field. The dislocations served as nucleation sites for ferroelectric domain walls and block the growth of domains. The KNN single-crystal microcuboids exhibited a higher effective piezoelectric coefficient (similar to 459 pm/V) compared to that of the bulk KNN ceramic counterpart (similar to 90 pm/V) and showed the broad diffuse maxima in the temperature dependence dielectric permittivity. The high maximum polarization (69.6 mu C/cm2) at a relatively low electric field (30 kV/cm) was beneficial for energy storage applications. Furthermore, the KNN-based transparent, flexible pressure sensor directly monitored the mechanical motion of human activity without any external electric power. This study provides insights and synthetic strategies of single-crystal RFE microcuboids for other different perovskites, in which nanodomain structures are primarily imposed by their chemical composition.

Automated summary

In this study, transparent and uniform Li, Ba-doped (K,Na)NbO3 (KNN) single-crystal microcuboids were successfully prepared using a facile molten-salt synthetic strategy. By controlling the degree of supersaturation, different growth modes were found and the single crystal microcuboids were synthesized via island-like oriented attachment of KNN particles onto the growing surface. The single-crystal microcuboids exhibited distinct relaxor ferroelectric (RFE) properties, achieved through dislocation-induced nanodomain formation during their growth process.