Excellent electrostrictive properties of low temperature sintered PZT ceramics with high concentration LiBiO2 sintering aid

The effect of LiBiO2 (LBO) additive on the sintering of Pb0.97La0.03(Zr0.53Ti0.47)0.9925O3 (PLZT) ceramics was carefully investigated. 6.0 wt% LBO added PLZT powders could be fully densified to 98% relative density at a temperature as low as 950 °C. It is worthy to notice that there are distinct enhancements in piezoelectric and electrostrictive properties by increasing the soaking time from 2 h to 7 h, which could mainly originate from the improvement of crystallinity and grain size of PLZT ceramics. By controlling the soaking time and concentration of LBO addition, PLZT ceramics sintered at 950 °C could exhibit high curie temperature of 240 °C and very high S11 of 0.22% under 3.0 kV/mm, which is even better than that of traditionally sintered PZT-5, PMN–PZT, and this is very promising for actuators designed in multilayer structure in high temperature environment.