Investigation of Low-Temperature Sintering Li₂CO₃-Doped PZT-Based Piezoceramics with Good High-Power Performance

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics have been widely investigated due to their excellent electrical properties and thermal stability. However, the sintering temperature of PZT ceramics usually exceeds 1200 °C, where lead elements undergo serious volatilization, leading to a stoichiometric ratio deviation of PZT-based ceramics, thereby deteriorating their electrical properties. In this work, we fabricated Li₂CO₃ (Li)-doped Pb_0.96Sr_0.04(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)_0.9Mn_0.1O₃ (PSZTMn) ceramics and investigated the influence of doping amount on their characteristics and electrical properties, especially high-power performance. The results showed that the addition of 0.7 wt % Li could decrease the sintering temperature from 1200 to 1050 °C and improve the density of PSZTMn ceramic, resulting in great electrical properties (d₃₃ ∼ 426 pC/N, Q_m ∼ 574, and k_p ∼ 61.5%). Notably, the maximum vibration velocity (v_m) of the low-temperature sintered PSZTMn + 0.7 wt % Li ceramic was significantly increased to 1.9 m/s, which is 19% higher than that of the conventional sintering sample (1.6 m/s). The excellent high-power performance of low-temperature sintering Li₂CO₃ doped PZT ceramics paves the way for their applications in piezoelectric actuators and transducers.