BNKT Ceramics, one of the representative Pb free based piezoelectric ceramics, constitutes a perovskite(ABO3) structure. At this time, the perovskite structure (ABO3) is in the form where the corners of the octahedrons are connected, and in the unit cell, two ions, A and B, are cations, A ion is located at the body center, B ion is located at each corner, and an anion O is located at the center of each side. Since Bi, Na, and K sources constituting the A site are highly volatile at a sintering temperature of 1100℃ or higher, it is difficult to maintain uniformity of the composition. In order to solve this problem, there should be suppression of volatilization of the A site material or additional compensation of the volatilized. In this study, the basic composition of BNKT Ceramics was set to Bi0.5(Na0.78K0.22)0.5TiO3 (= BNKT), and volatile site (Bi, Na, and K sources) were coated in the form of a shell to compensate additionally for the A site ions. In addition, the physical and electrical properties of BNKT and its coated with shell additives(= @BNK) were compared and analyzed, respectively. As a result of analyzing the crystal structure through XRD, both BNKT(Core) and @BNK(Shell) had perovskite phases, and the crystallinity was almost similar. Although the Curie temperature of the two sintered bodies was almost the same (TC = 290 ~ 300 ℃), it was confirmed that the d33 (piezoelectric coefficient) and Pr (residual polarization) values were different. The experimental results indicated that the additional compensation for a shell additive causes the coarsening, resulting in a decrease in sintering density and Pr(remanent polarization). However, coating shell additives to compensate for A site ion is an effective way to suppress volatilization. Based on these experimental results, it would be the biggest advantage to develop an eco-friendly material (Lead-free) that replaced lead (Pb), which is harmful to the human body. This lead-free piezoelectric material can be applied to a biomedical device or products(ex. earphones (hearing aids), heart rate monitors, ultrasonic vibrators, etc.) and skin beauty improvement products (mask packs for whitening and wrinkle improvement).

K0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (KBT) thin films were prepared by sol-gel processing for future use in piezoelectric generators. It is believed that the annealing temperature of films plays an important role in the output performance of piezoelectric generators. KBT films prepared on Ni substrates were annealed at 500 ~ 700 oC. Tetragonal KBT films were formed after annealing process. As the annealing temperature increased, the grain size of KBT films increased. KBT thin films show piezoelectric constant (d33) from 23 to 41 pC/N. The increase of grain size in KBT films brought about output voltage and current in the KBT generators. Also, the increase in the displacement of specimens during bending test resulted in increases in output voltage and current. Although KBT generators showed lower output power than those of generators prepared using NBT films, as reported previously, the KBT films prepared by sol-gel method show applicability as piezoelectric thin films for lead-free nanogenerators, along with NBT films.

Grain-growth behavior in the 95Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3-5BaTiO3 (mole fraction, NBT-5BT) system has been investigated with the addition of Na2CO3. When Na2CO3 is added to NBT-5BT, the growth rate is higher than desired and grains are already impinging each other during the initial stage of sintering. The grain size decreases as the sintering temperature increases. With the addition of Na2CO3, a liquid phase infiltrates the interfaces between grains during sintering. The interface structure can be changed to be more faceted and the interface migration rate can increase due to fast material transport through the liquid phase. As the sintering temperature increases, the impingement of abnormal grains increases because the number of abnormal grains increases. Therefore, the average grain size of abnormal grains can be decreased as the temperature increases. The phenomenon can provide evidence that grain coarsening in NBT-5BT with addition of Na2CO3 is governed by the growth of facet planes, which would occur via mixed control.

New lead-free piezoelectric ceramics 0.96[{Bi0.5 (Na0.84 K0.16)0.5}1-xLax(Ti1-y Nby)O3]-0.04SrTiO3 (BNKT-ST-LN, where x = y = 0.00 ≤ (x = y) ≤ 0.015) were synthesized using the conventional solid-state reaction method. Their crystal structure, microstructure, and electrical properties were investigated as a function of the La and Nb (LN) content. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the formation of a single-phase perovskite structure for all the LN-modified BNKT-ST ceramics in this study. The temperature dependence of the dielectric curves showed that the maximum dielectric constant temperature (Tm) shifted towards lower temperatures and the curves became more diffuse with an increasing LN content. At the optimum composition (LN 0.005), a maximum value of remnant polarization (33 C/cm2) with a relatively low coercive field (22 kV/cm) and high piezoelectric constant (215 pC/N) was observed. These results indicate that the LN co-modified BNKT-ST ceramic system is a promising candidate for lead-free piezoelectric materials.