Lead titanates (PbTiO3) are excellent piezoelectric materials because of their high Curie temperatures and high polarizability due to lone pair distortion in addition to the second-order Jahn-Teller Distortion of the d0 cation.1 These materials are widely used in sensors, actuators, and solar technology, but as lead is a toxic element, there is a need to develop lead-free alternatives. Even the best replacements that have been discovered thus far still have piezoelectric coefficients (d33) hundreds of pC/N lower than those of the lead-based compounds utilized in industry, and many additionally have low Curie temperatures that render them useless for many applications. In an effort to find viable replacements for lead titanates, our work focuses on synthesizing perovskites that draw from the chemistry of the Pb-perovskites, namely ABO3 where A2+ = A+/A3+ and B4+ = B3+/B4+/B5+. The purity of the solid solutions are determined via X-ray powder diffraction and analyzed by plotting the lattice parameter against concentration x as described by Vegard’s Law. Compounds are additionally characterized using advanced synchrotron and neutron scattering techniques obtained at national laboratory user facilities. Structural analysis through LeBail and Rietveld modeling methods will be combined with dielectric property characterization to elucidate the structure-property relationships in these materials. This work will contribute to the overall understanding of the chemistry involved in the high-performing Pb-materials and how similar chemistries can be employed for targeted performance.

Application of the underlying chemistry in PbTiO3 for the design of new polar perovskites

255th National Meeting (2018)

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