The effect of B-site Al doping on ferroelectric in BiFeO3–Ba(SnTi)O3-based lead-free ceramics
摘要
In recent years, BiFeO3–BaTiO3-based lead-free ferroelectric ceramics have garnered considerable attention owing to their favorable piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties as well as their high Curie temperature. Nevertheless, their ferroelectric stability is constrained by Bi volatilization and the instability of the Fe valence state. To address this issue, a 0.7Bi1.01Fe(1-x)AlxO3–0.3Ba(Sn0.11Ti0.89)O3–1%MnO2 lead-free ferroelectric ceramic system was successfully prepared by introducing Al at the B-site and a minor amount of MnO2 as a sintering aid. The results reveal that Al doping retains the structural integrity of the single perovskite phase and suppresses Bi volatilization and Fe valence fluctuation—conclusions indirectly deduced from the optimized ferroelectric hysteresis loops. This doping engineering stabilizes the local geometry of BO6 octahedra and substantially improves the ferroelectric performance of the ceramics. The enhanced performance may be attributed to the modulation of the B-site chemical environment by Al doping, which is speculated to eliminate the polarization pinning effect caused by defect complexes, enabling the material to achieve a transition from a weak ferroelectric response to saturated ferroelectric hysteresis loops. This study provides a new design strategy for realizing the transition from weak ferroelectric response to saturated ferroelectric behavior in BiFeO3–BaTiO3-based lead-free ferroelectric ceramics.