Electrical property optimization of BaTiO3‐based lead‐free piezoceramics by chemical doping.

Pb‐free piezoceramics have become an inevitable trend in the development of piezoelectric materials due to their non‐toxic and environmentally friendly characteristics. In this work, theoretical designs combined with phase‐field simulations were used to prepare a novel lead‐free system, that is, a type of A‐site donor and B‐site donor‐acceptor compound dopant (Nd0.5Li0.5)(Li0.25Nb0.75)O3, which was added to the matrix of Ba(Hf0.02Ti0.98)O3 to tune its composition and optimize its electrical properties. The experimental results showed that the phase transition temperature between orthorhombic and tetragonal (TO‐T) was regulated near room temperature (RT), benefitting their electrical properties. Furthermore, improvements in piezoelectricity were related not only to the O‐T phase boundary constructed around RT but also to the enhancements in dielectricity and ferroelectricity. Excellent integrated electrical properties were obtained, which were accompanied by an increase in Curie temperature (TC) in the 0.10 mol% sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]