BaTiO3-Poly vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) solution was prepared by adding 0~25 wt% BaTiO3 nanopowder and 10 wt% PVDF powder in solvent. BaTiO3-PVDF film was fabricated by spreading the solution on a glass with a doctor blade. The output performance increased with increasing BaTiO3 concentration. When the BaTiO3 concentration was 20 wt%, the output voltage and current were 4.98 V and 1.03 μA at an applied force of 100 N. However, they decreased when the over 20 wt% BaTiO3 powder was added, due to the aggregation of particles. To enhance the output performance, the generator was poled with an electric field of 150~250 kV/cm at 100 °C for 12 h. The output performance increased with increasing electric field. The output voltage and current were 7.87 V and 2.5 μA when poled with a 200 kV/cm electric field. This result seems likely to be caused by the c-axis alignment of the BaTiO3 after poling treatment. XRD patterns of the poled BaTiO3-PVDF films showed that the intensity of the (002) peak increased under high electric field. However, when the generator was poled with 250 kV/cm, the output performance of the generator degraded due to breakdown of the BaTiO3-PVDF film. When the generator was matched with 800 Ω resistance, the power density of the generator reached 1.74 mW/m2. The generator was able to charge a 10 μF capacitor up to 1.11 V and turn on 10 red LEDs.

(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 (BNT)-based ceramics are considered promising candidates for actuator application owing to their excellent electromechanical strain properties However, to obtain large strain properties, there remain several issues such as thermal stability and high operating fields. Therefore, this study investigates a reduction of operating field in (0.98-x)Bi1/2Na1/ 2TiO3-0.02 BiAlO3-xSrTiO3 (BNT-2BA-100xST, x = 0.20, 0.21, 0.22, 0.23, and 0.24) via analyses of the microstructure, crystal structure, dielectric, polarization, ferroelectric and electromechanical strain properties. The average grain size of BNT-2BA- 100xST ceramics decreases with increasing ST content. Results of polarization and electromechanical strain properties indicate that a ferroelectric to relaxor state transition is induced by ST modification. As a consequence, a large electromechanical strain of 592 pm/V is obtained at a relatively low electric field of 4 kV/mm in 22 mol% ST-modified BNT-2BA ceramics. We believe that the materials synthesized in this study are promising candidates for actuator applications.

Presently, the most promising family of lead-free piezoelectric ceramics is based on K0.5Na0.5NbO3(KNN). Lithium, silver and antimony co-doped KNN ceramics show high piezoelectric properties at room temperature, but often suffer from abnormal grain growth. In the present work, the (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.88Zr0.12)O3 component, which has relaxor ferroelectric characteristics, was doped to suppress the abnormal grain growth. To investigate this effect, Lead-Free 0.95(K0.5Na0.5)0.95Li0.05NbO3-(0.05-x)AgSbO3-x(Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.88Zr0.12)O3[KNLN-AS-xBCTZ] piezoelectric ceramics were synthesized by ball mill and nanosized-milling processes in lead-Free 0.95(K0.5Na0.5)0.95Li0.05NbO3-(0.05-x)AgSbO3 in order to suppress the abnormal grain growth. The nanosized milling process of calcined powders enhanced the sintering density. The phase structure, microstructure, and ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the KNLN-AS ceramics were systematically investigated. XRD patterns for the doped and undoped samples showed perovskite phase while tetragonality was increased with increasing BCZT content, which increase was closely related to the decrease of TO-T. Dense and uniform microstructures were observed for all of the doped BCZT ceramics. After the addition of BCTZ, the tetragonal-cubic and orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transitions shifted to lower temperatures compared to those for the pure KNNL-AS. A coexistence of the orthorhombic and tetragonal phases was hence formed in the ceramics with x = 0.02 mol at room temperature, leading to a significant enhancement of the piezoelectric properties. For the composition with x = 0.02 mol, the piezoelectric properties showed optimum values of: d33 = 185 pC/N, kp = 41%, Tc=325˚C, TO-T=-4˚C.