Effects of sintering behavior on piezoelectric properties of porous PZT ceramics

Porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics were fabricated by the gel-casting process of particle-stabilized wet foams and sintered at different temperatures. The bulk density and grain size of porous PZT ceramics increased with the increase of sintering temperature from 1150 to 1250 °C, which exerted remarkable influence on the value of relative permittivity (εr) and piezoelectric strain coefficient (d31 and d33). The relationship between microstructure and electric properties was explained by the space-charge theory reasonably. Under the joint effects of bulk density and grain size, the value of dh and gh decreased with the increase of sintering temperature, resulting in the decrease of hydrostatic figure of merit (HFOM) values from 12633 to 3427×10–15 Pa−1.