Engineered hard piezoelectric materials of MnO2 doped PZT-PSN ceramics for sensors applications

In this study, MnO2-doped 0.96Pb(Zr0.515,Ti0.485)O3-0.04Pb(Sb0.5,Nb0.5)O3 (0.96PZT-0.04PSN) hard piezoelectric ceramics were fabricated by employing a conventional mixed-oxide process. Hard piezoelectric materials are suitable for mechanical device applications such as transducers or piezoelectric ultrasonic motors owing to their high mechanical quality factor. To improve the hard piezoelectric properties, MnO2 was selected and doped into 0.96PZT-0.04PSN ceramics in this study. When MnO2 was introduced into piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics, the resistivity and dielectric permittivity decreased, leading to an increase in the mechanical quality factor. MnO2-doped 0.96PZT-0.04PSN ceramics have a lower piezoelectric charge coefficient and dielectric permittivity compared to those of 0.96PZT-0.04PSN ceramics. However, an enhanced mechanical quality factor of 1600 was obtained for the 0.96PZT-0.04PSN ceramics doped with 0.5 wt% of MnO2. In contrast to other hard piezoelectric materials, MnO2 doped 0.96Pb(Zr0.515,Ti0.485)O3-0.04Pb(Sb0.5,Nb0.5)O3 ceramics have a high Qm value while having an appropriate piezoelectric charge coefficient d33 and electromechanical coupling coefficient kp.