Morphotropic phase boundary and electric properties in (1−x)Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-xBiCoO3 lead-free piezoelectric ceramics

Lead-free (1−x)Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-xBiCoO3 (x = 0, 0.015, 0.025, 0.03, 0.035, 0.04, and 0.06) piezoelectric ceramics have been synthesized and their structure and electric properties have been investigated systemically. The rhombohedral-tetragonal morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) locates near x = 0.025–0.035. For the ceramics with x = 0.025, the saturated polarization (Ps), remnant polarization (Pr), coercive field (Ec), strain(S), piezoelectric constant (d33), and thickness electromechanical coupling factor (kt) are 40.6 μC/cm2, 35.4 μC/cm2, 5.25 kV/mm, 0.11%, 107pC/N, and 0.45, respectively. The low temperature humps of relative dielectric constant, which is indicative of TR-T, are becoming inconspicuous gradually with the increasing x and almost disappear at x = 0.04. The depolarization temperature Td decreases first and then increases with the increasing x. Our results may be helpful for further work on Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics.