Piezoelectric and dielectric properties of piezoelectric ceramic–sulphoaluminate cement composites

0–3 piezoelectric composites with good performances were prepared using a sulphoaluminate cement and PMN ceramic particles. Piezoelectric and dielectric properties of the composites with different PMN contents were investigated. The influences of the cement hydration age on the piezoelectric constant of the composites were analyzed. The results indicate that the piezoelectric coefficients and dielectric constants of the composites rapidly increase as the PMN content increases. The piezoelectric characteristics of the sulphoaluminate cement-based piezoelectric composites are very different from those of the piezoelectric ceramics and polymer–ceramic piezoelectric composites. For the latter, the piezoelectric properties decrease with the prolonging of time, while the piezoelectric properties of the sulphoaluminate cement-based piezoelectric composite are improved with increasing the cement hydration age. When the cement hydration age exceeds 8 days, d ¯ 33 tends to be constant.