Design and Fabrication of an Epoxy/Glass Microbeads-Based 1-3 Piezoelectric Composite

An epoxy/glass microbeads-based 1-3 piezoelectric composite is proposed, to enhance electromechanical conversion efficiency. Firstly, based on the series-parallel theory, the theoretical model is established. Secondly, the epoxy resin/glass microbeads-based 1-3 piezoelectric composite is simulated by finite element software. The effects of polymers with different acoustic impedances, the thicknesses of piezoelectric composites, and ceramic volume fractions are analyzed systematically. After parameter optimization, the epoxy/glass microbeads-based 1-3 piezoelectric composite is prepared. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical and simulation results. When the ceramic volume fraction is 60.0%, its electromechanical coupling factor is the largest, which is 0.714. Compared with the prepared traditional 1-3 piezoelectric composites with the same parameters, its electromechanical coupling factor is increased by 7.8%. Therefore, the epoxy/glass microbeads-based 1-3 piezoelectric composite can enhance the sensitivity and resolution of the transducers, which has potential advantages for improving the performance of transducers.