Comparative study on the phase transitions in PZT-based ceramics by mechanical and dielectric analyses

This paper investigated the low-frequency mechanical properties of ferroelectric ceramics (PZT-5H and PZT-8) and anti-ferroelectric ceramics ((Pb0.97−xBaxLa0.02)(Zr0.50Ti0.10Sn0.40)O3, x = 0.08, 0.09, 0.10, 0.11) by a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA). The dynamic mechanical analysis was performed from −100 to 400 °C in temperature and 0.1–4 Hz in frequency. The dielectric properties were also measured as a comparison. The results showed an obvious turning point (Tm) where tan δ reached its maximum and the modulus began to increase for all the samples. tan δ revealed an relaxation region in the ferroelectric ceramics and no corresponding region in the anti-ferroelectric ceramics, which may be originated from the domain walls’ motion in the ceramic. The tan δ started to decrease to nearly zero around the tetragonal to cubic phase transition temperature (Tc) for all of the tested samples.