Fabrication and Characterization of Li2CO3 Modified Low Temperature Sintered PZT-5H Compositions for Multilayer Piezoelectric Ceramics

In the use of piezocermic applications, piezoceramic compositions have high d 33 (>500 pC/N) and Kt (2000) such as PZT-5H. However, these ceramics can be sintered at high temperatures up to 1200˚C). Since these require the use of Ag-Pd inner electrodes with higher Pd ratio, multilayer ceramics are not preferred due to their high costs. In this study, it was aimed to reduce the sintering temperature without dramatically losing the electrical properties of the PZT-5H ceramics with high d 33 , kp and dielectric constant values. In this context, the PZT-5H composition was modified with different proportions of Li 2 CO 3 and sintered for 2-4 hours at different sintering temperatures such as 875˚C-1250˚C depending on the ratio of additions. The piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of the ceramics were investigated and obtained values were compared with undoped PZT-5H. It was observed that the d 33 values of the different amount of Li 2 CO 3 added compositions sintered at optimum sintering temperature are close that the composition without additives. In this way, it is predicted that 9/1 Ag/Pd and Ag inner electrode materials can be used in multilayer production and their costs can be reduced.