Excellent hardening effect in lead-free piezoceramics by embedding local Cu-doped defect dipoles in phase boundary engineering

Xinyue Qiu, Chao Wu, Daniel Q. Tan (), Ruihong Liang, Chen Liu, Yinchang Ma, Xi-xiang Zhang, Shiyang Wei, Junwei Zhang, Zhi Tan, Zhipeng Wang (), Xiang Lv () and Jiagang Wu ()
Additional contact information
Xinyue Qiu: Sichuan University
Chao Wu: Sichuan University
Daniel Q. Tan: Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Ruihong Liang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chen Liu: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Yinchang Ma: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Xi-xiang Zhang: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Shiyang Wei: Lanzhou University
Junwei Zhang: Lanzhou University
Zhi Tan: Sichuan University
Zhipeng Wang: Xidian University
Xiang Lv: Sichuan University
Jiagang Wu: Sichuan University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Piezoceramics for high-power applications require both high piezoelectric coefficient (d33) and mechanical quality factor (Qm). However, the trade-off between them poses a significant challenge in achieving high values simultaneously, which is more prominent in lead-free piezoceramics. Here, we propose a new strategy, local Cu-acceptor defect dipoles embedded orthorhombic-tetragonal phase boundary engineering (O-T PBE), to balance d33 and Qm in potassium sodium niobate piezoceramics. This is validated in 0.95(K0.48Na0.52)NbO3-0.05(Bi0.5Na0.5)HfO3-0.2%molFe2O3-xmol%CuO ceramics. Our strategy simultaneously maintains the O-T PBE and introduces local dimeric $${({{Cu}}_{{Nb}}^{{\prime} {\prime} {\prime} }-{V}_{O}^{\bullet \bullet })}^{{\prime} }$$ ( C u N b ″ ′ − V O ∙ ∙ ) ′ and trimeric $${\left({V}_{O}^{\bullet \bullet }-{{Cu}}_{{Nb}}^{{\prime} {\prime} {\prime} }-{V}_{O}^{\bullet \bullet }\right)}^{\bullet }$$ V O ∙ ∙ − C u N b ″ ′ − V O ∙ ∙ ∙ defects. The dimeric defects form defect dipole polarization that pins domain wall motion, while the trimeric ones introduce the local structural heterogeneity that leads to nano-scale multi-phase coexistence and abundant nano-domains. Encouragingly, for the Cu-doped sample with x = 1, Qm increases by a factor of 4, but d33 only decreases by 1/5 (i.e., achieving a d33 of 340 pC/N and a Qm of 256). Our research provides a new paradigm for balancing d33 and Qm in lead-free piezoceramics, which holds promise for high-power applications.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58269-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58269-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58269-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().