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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2016) | Viewed by 72435

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Prof. Dr. Sheng-Yuan Chu

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Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Rd., Tainan, Taiwan
Interests: electronic and ceramic materials/devices; surface acoustic wave devices; nano-optoelectric materials and display devices; nano-imprinting technology; organic light-emitting devices
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Dear Colleagues,

Ferroelectric Ceramics exhibit unique piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and ferroelectric properties. From a structural point of view, the following four types of ceramic ferroelectrics are known: (1) perovskites, (2) the tungsten-bronze group, (3) pyrochlores, and (4) the bismuth layer-structure group. Of these, the perovskites (ABO3) are by far the most important category.

Since the discovery of barium titanate (BaTiO3) in the 1940s, perovskite ferroelectric materials have been the dominating piezoelectric materials for electromechanical devices, and are widely used in industry and for medical purposes.

Due to their superior performance, Ferroelectric Ceramics can be used as capacitors, non-volatile memory, ultrasonic transducers, actuators, piezoelectric transformers, piezoelectric speakers, microwave filters, and electro-optic materials for data storage applications. Most of these devices use lead-based perovskite piezoelectric ceramics due to their superior piezoelectric properties in comparison with their lead-free counterparts. The environmental concerns caused by the highly toxic nature of lead-based ceramics. Hence, it is especially urgent to search for lead-free, or low lead content, materials that have excellent piezoelectric properties.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences (SCIE-indexed) (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/) aims to cover recent advances in the investigation of ferroelectric ceramics, and their applications, for the upcoming Special Issue on “Ferroelectric Ceramics”. We would like to invite you to submit or recommend original research papers for this issue through our Paper Submission System.

Aims and Scope (not limited to the following fields):

Properties analysis of ferroelectrics ceramics
Ferroelectric ceramics devices and applications
New ferroelectric/dielectric materials
Ferroelectric ceramics microstructure and phase transition analysis

Prof. Dr. Sheng-Yuan Chu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

piezoelectric
pyroelectric
ferroelectric
perovskites
lead-free

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

5210 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis and Experimental Research of a Multilayer Linear Piezoelectric Actuator

by Songmei Yuan, Yanqiang Zhao, Xiangcheng Chu, Cong Zhu and Zuojin Zhong

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(8), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6080225 - 11 Aug 2016

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5979

Abstract

To lower the operating voltage and improve the output performance of piezoelectric actuators, a multilayer monolithic ultrasonic linear piezoelectric actuator was analyzed with the method of finite element analysis (FEA), and a prototype was fabricated and experimentally researched in this study. Experimental results show that the actuator with a multilayer piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) structure (size: 30 × 7.5 × 3 mm³, mass: 5.49 g) can output a pulling force of 5.0 N maximum and a linear velocity up to 270 mm/s at the voltage of 100 V_pp (V_pp means the peak-to-peak value of the voltage volts), showing a relatively good velocity controllability at the same time. The temperature rise characteristic of the actuator at various voltages was studied. The results indicate that: the temperature of this actuator rises rapidly but tends to saturate at some value; applying an offsetting voltage or decreasing the amplitude of the voltage would reduce the heat production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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2829 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on a Linear Piezoelectric Actuator Using T-Shape Transducer to Realize High Mechanical Output

by Sijia Shao, Shengjun Shi, Weishan Chen, Junkao Liu and Yingxiang Liu

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(4), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6040103 - 11 Apr 2016

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5304

Abstract

A modified large thrust ultrasonic linear motor using a T-shape configuration composed of two orthogonal sandwich-type transducers has been proposed in this paper. It is an improved version of a previous T-shape motor. The vertical transducer is used to generate the normal force between the driving foot and slider, while the other push-pull–type horizontal transducer is applied to generate driving force to push the working platform. By superimposing the two longitudinal vibrations, the proposed motor generates an elliptical movement on the driving foot. In order to improve the vibration characteristics and amplify the driving vibration amplitude, the shape of the driving foot and horn have been redesigned and optimized. The finite element method (FEM) is used to adjust the structural parameters to degenerate the two working mode frequencies. The prototype has been fabricated and its mechanical output ability has been measured. The output characteristics of the modified motor, compared with the previous T-shape motor, achieve a relatively high level. The typical no-load speed and maximum output thrust of the prototype are 0.83 m/s and 56 N under an exciting voltage of 150 V_rms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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6867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Bearing Lubricating Device Based on the Piezoelectric Micro-Jet

by Kai Li, Junkao Liu, Weishan Chen, Lei Ye and Lu Zhang

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(2), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6020038 - 1 Feb 2016

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5483

Abstract

A novel bearing lubricating device, which is embedded in gyroscope’s bearing system and based on the theory of the piezoelectric micro-jet, was designed for this study. The embedded structure of a bearing lubricating system can make effective use of the limited space of bearing systems without increasing the whole mass of the system. The drop-on-demand (DOD) lubrication can be realized by the piezoelectric micro-jet system to implement the long acting lubrication of the bearing system. A mathematical model of inlet boundary conditions was established to carry on the numerical simulation based on CFD. The motion states of the droplets with different voltage excitations were analyzed via numerical simulations, and the injection performances of the piezoelectric micro-jet lubricating device were tested in accordance with past experiments. The influences of different parameters of voltage excitation on injection performance were obtained, and the methods of adjusting the injection performance to meet different requirements are given according to the analyses of the results. The mathematical model and numerical simulation method were confirmed by comparing the results of past simulations and experiments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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5210 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on a Composite Power-Superimposed Ultrasonic Vibrator for Wire Drawing

by Shen Liu, Xiaobiao Shan, Kai Guo and Tao Xie

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(2), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6020032 - 25 Jan 2016

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6322

Abstract

Vibration power and amplitude are essential factors in ultrasonic drawing processes, especially for difficult-to-draw materials like titanium and its alloys. This paper presents a new composite power-superimposed ultrasonic vibrator for wire drawing which was driven by three separate ultrasonic transducers. The transducers were uniformly distributed around the circular cross section of the vibrator, with their axes along the radial direction and pointing to the center. The vibrator can concentrate the vibrational energy of multiple transducers and transform the radial vibration into a longitudinal vibrator because of the Poisson effect and therefore output larger vibration power and amplitude. In the paper, the four-terminal network method was used to establish the vibration equations of the vibrator. The FE model was established in ANSYS to investigate its characteristics under various excitation conditions. A prototype was manufactured and measurements were performed to verify the validation of FEA results. The results matched well with the theoretical results. It was found that the composite vibrator achieved an amplitude of about 40 μm when driven by square wave signals with 120° in phase difference, which implies a potential way of applying ultrasonic vibration to the processing of difficult-to-draw materials. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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2625 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Different Heating Process on the Photoluminescence Properties of Perovskite Eu-Doped BaZrO₃ Powder

by Kun-Neng Chen, Chao-Ming Hsu, Jing Liu, Yi-Tang Chiu and Cheng-Fu Yang

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(1), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6010022 - 18 Jan 2016

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5403

Abstract

In this study, BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powder was synthesized through the solid-state reaction method with two different heating processes. For the one-step process, the BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powder was heated to 1000 °C–1400 °C for 2 h. For the two-step heating process, the BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powder was pre-heated at 800 °C for 2 h, after being cooled to room temperature and ground, then the powder was heated to 1000 °C–1400 °C again for 2 h. The optimum excitation optical wavelength of BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powders were 271 nm and the maximum intensity of the emission spectrum of BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powders increased with increasing heating temperature. The all-heated BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powders showed two strong orange emission bands peaking at the wavelengths of 574 and 596 nm and two weak emission bands peaking at 620 and 650 nm. As the heating temperatures were 1300 °C and 1400 °C, the maximum intensity of one-step heating BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powders appeared at the ⁵D₀–⁷F₀ (574 nm) and the maximum intensity of one-step heating BaZrO₃:Eu_0.025 powders appeared at the ⁵D₀–⁷F₁ (596 nm) transitions of Eu³⁺ ions, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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8368 KiB

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A Novel Tunable Multi-Frequency Hybrid Vibration Energy Harvester Using Piezoelectric and Electromagnetic Conversion Mechanisms

by Zhenlong Xu, Xiaobiao Shan, Danpeng Chen and Tao Xie

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6010010 - 5 Jan 2016

Cited by 80 | Viewed by 10176

Abstract

This paper presents a novel tunable multi-frequency hybrid energy harvester (HEH). It consists of a piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) and an electromagnetic energy harvester (EMEH), which are coupled with magnetic interaction. An electromechanical coupling model was developed and numerically simulated. The effects of magnetic force, mass ratio, stiffness ratio, and mechanical damping ratios on the output power were investigated. A prototype was fabricated and characterized by experiments. The measured first peak power increases by 16.7% and 833.3% compared with that of the multi-frequency EMEH and the multi-frequency PEH, respectively. It is 2.36 times more than the combined output power of the linear PEH and linear EMEH at 22.6 Hz. The half-power bandwidth for the first peak power is also broadened. Numerical results agree well with the experimental data. It is indicated that magnetic interaction can tune the resonant frequencies. Both magnetic coupling configuration and hybrid conversion mechanism contribute to enhancing the output power and widening the operation bandwidth. The magnitude and direction of magnetic force have significant effects on the performance of the HEH. This proposed HEH is an effective approach to improve the generating performance of the micro-scale energy harvesting devices in low-frequency range. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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5125 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Post-Annealing on the Microstructure and Microwave Dielectric Properties of Ba(Co_0.7Zn_0.3)_1/3Nb_2/3O₃ Ceramics

by Brahim Itaalit, Mohamed Mouyane, Jérôme Bernard, Manfred Womes and David Houivet

Appl. Sci. 2016, 6(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/app6010002 - 22 Dec 2015

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4847

Abstract

The effects of post-annealing on the crystal structure, microstructure, and microwave dielectric properties for Ba(Co_0.7Zn_0.3)_1/3Nb_2/3O₃ ceramics were investigated. The as-prepared materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The microwave dielectric properties are measured at 6 GHz using a network analyzer. Ba₅Nb₄O₁₅ and/or Ba₈(Co,Zn)₁Nb₆O₂₄ secondary phases were found on the surface according to sintering conditions due to volatilization of some Zn and Co elements. The experimental results show that the beneficial effect of the annealing steps to improved the microwave dielectric properties. Excellent microwave dielectric properties were achieved for the coarse-grained microstructures by a higher sintering temperature and with a shorter holding time followed by annealing steps at lower temperatures with a longer holding time. This improvement can be attributed to 1:2 cation ordering within the crystal, which is taking place during annealing process. The Ba(Co_0.7Zn_0.3)_1/3Nb_2/3O₃ ceramic could be used successfully for realization of dielectric microwave resonators, since it has a high quality factor Q_f value of 123,700 GHz, a high dielectric constant ε_r value of 34.5 and a temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency τ_f of 0 ppm/°C. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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2689 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Using the Macro Fiber Composite Cantilever with a Bicylinder in Water

by Rujun Song, Xiaobiao Shan, Fengchi Lv, Jinzhe Li and Tao Xie

Appl. Sci. 2015, 5(4), 1942-1954; https://doi.org/10.3390/app5041942 - 17 Dec 2015

Cited by 64 | Viewed by 9246

Abstract

A novel piezoelectric energy harvester equipped with two piezoelectric beams and two cylinders was proposed in this work. The energy harvester can convert the kinetic energy of water into electrical energy by means of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and wake-induced vibration (WIV). The effects of load resistance, water velocity and cylinder diameter on the performance of the harvester were investigated. It was found that the vibration of the upstream cylinder was VIV which enhanced the energy harvesting capacity of the upstream piezoelectric beam. As for the downstream cylinder, both VIV and the WIV could be obtained. The VIV was found with small L/D, e.g., 2.125, 2.28, 2.5, and 2.8. Additionally, the WIV was stimulated with the increase of L/D (such as 3.25, 4, and 5.5). Due to the WIV, the downstream beam presented better performance in energy harvesting with the increase of water velocity. Furthermore, it revealed that more electrical energy could be obtained by appropriately matching the resistance and the diameter of the cylinder. With optimal resistance (170 kΩ) and diameter of the cylinder (30 mm), the maximum output power of 21.86 μW (sum of both piezoelectric beams) was obtained at a water velocity of 0.31 m/s. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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4259 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Ta₂O₅ and Nb₂O₅ Dopants on the Stable Dielectric Properties of BaTiO₃–(Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃-Based Materials

by Sea-Fue Wang, Yung-Fu Hsu, Yu-Wen Hung and Yi-Xin Liu

Appl. Sci. 2015, 5(4), 1221-1234; https://doi.org/10.3390/app5041221 - 16 Nov 2015

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5959

Abstract

In this study, BaTiO₃–(Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃ ceramics with various amounts of Ta₂O₅ dopant were investigated for their ability to enhance high-temperature stability to meet X9R specifications. The results were compared to those for ceramics with the common Nb₂O₅ additive. The best composition appeared to be 0.9BaTiO₃–0.1(Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃ with 2 mol% Ta₂O₅ dopant sintered at 1215 °C, which had a dielectric constant of 1386, a tanδ value of 1.8%, temperature coefficients of capacitance (TCCs) of −1.3% and 1.2%, and electrical resistivities of 2.8 × 10¹² and 1.5 × 10¹⁰ Ω·cm at 25 °C and 200 °C, respectively. Its microstructure consisted of fine equiaxed grains with a perovskite structure and an average grain size of 0.46 μm and some rod-like grains of second-phase Ba₆Ti₁₇O₄₀ with a size of approximately 3.2 μm. The Ta₂O₅ dopant caused a reduction in the grain size and a slight increase in trapped pores. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant flattened and the Curie point was dramatically suppressed with the addition of Ta₂O₅ dopant, leading to smooth dielectric temperature characteristics over a relatively broad temperature range. The X9R formulations and their dielectric properties were highly repeatable in this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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992 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Magnetoelectric Effect in Permendur/Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ Laminated Magnetostrictive/Piezoelectric Composite

by Yanmin Jia, Wenjing Zhou, Ke Ma and Yongsheng Liu

Appl. Sci. 2015, 5(3), 587-594; https://doi.org/10.3390/app5030587 - 18 Sep 2015

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5669

Abstract

In this work, after investigating three typical magneto-electric (ME) composites, Permendur/Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃(PZT), Metglas/PZT, and Tefenol-D/PZT, with the same dimensions and different saturation magnetostriction and magnetic permeability, the most excellent ME performance is observed in the Permendur/PZT laminates, which agrees well with the predicted results from the figure of merit. The low-frequency and resonance ME coefficients of Permendur/PZT composite are ~23.1 V/Oe.cm and ~309 V/Oe.cm at the optimal dc bias magnetic field of ~250 Oe, respectively. The strong ME effect of Permendur/PZT composite gives it potential in practical magnetic sensitive device applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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3296 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Rotary Piezoelectric Motor Using First Bending Hybrid Transducers

by Yingxiang Liu, Dongmei Xu, Zhaoyang Yu, Jipeng Yan, Xiaohui Yang and Weishan Chen

Appl. Sci. 2015, 5(3), 472-484; https://doi.org/10.3390/app5030472 - 27 Aug 2015

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 7048

Abstract

We report a novel rotary piezoelectric motor using bending transducers in this work. Three transducers are used to drive a disk-shaped rotor together by the elliptical movements of their driving tips; these motions are produced by the hybrid of two first bending vibration modes. The proposed piezoelectric transducer has a simple structure as it only contains an aluminum alloy beam and four pieces of PZT plates. Symmetrical structure is the only necessary condition in the design process as it will ensure the resonance frequencies of the two orthogonal first bending modes are equal. Transducers with first bending resonance frequency of about 53 kHz were fabricated and assembled into a rotary motor. The proposed motor exhibits good performance on speed and torque control. Under a working frequency of 53.2 kHz, the maximum no-load speed and the maximum torque of the prototype are tested to be 53.3 rpm and of 27 mN·m. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ferroelectric Ceramics)

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