Fig. 1 shows the XRD patterns of (1-x)BF-xBT-BZT ceramics samples. The main structure of all samples is ABO3-type perovskite structure. This phenomenon shows that the ceramics have formed a homogeneous ternary solid solution [35,36]. In order to descript the phase structure transition of the ceramics more carefully, the characteristic peak near 39˚ are enlarged as displayed in Fig. 1(b). When the content of BaTiO3 increases from 0.24 to 0.34, the characteristic peak evolved from the double peak (003 and 021) to a single peak (111). The shift is mainly near x = 0.3. When the range of x is 0.24-0.28, the phase structure of ceramics is rhombohedral. When x ≥ 0.32, the phase structure converted to pseudocubic phase. The rhombohedral and the pseudocube phase coexist when x is around 0.3, the existence of MPB in 0.7BF-0.3BT-BZT sample [25,27,37].
Fig. 2-1 is the surface microstructures of (1-x)BF-xBT-BZT ceramics sintered at 980℃. Fig. 2-2 is the average grain size distributions of the ceramics. All samples have no obvious holes, which could be reflected in the SEM micrographs of different BT contents. When x = 0.24, the average grain size of ceramics is relatively larger. With the content of BT increases, the grain size of the ceramics decreases significantly. When x ≥ 0.28, the grain sizes don’t become smaller anymore and tend to be stable. The reason for this phenomenon is that BF is a low-melting material [38]. At the same sintering temperature, more BF promotes grain growth and reduces sintering temperature. Furthermore, with the increase of BT, the oxygen vacancies decrease during BF sintering process (the change of Fe3+ to Fe2+ and the volatility of Bi2O3) [23,32,39], which is not conducive to grain transfer, and ultimately inhibits grain growth [40]. It is worth noted that the liquid phase appears clearly at x = 0.3, which indicates that the BF and BT content reaches the optimal ratio and promoted sintering.
Fig. 3 presents the variation trend of piezoelectric constant d33, electromechanical coupling coefficient kp, mechanical mass factor Qm and dielectric loss tanδ with BT content. The d33 and kp increase first and reach the maximum d33 = 184 pC/N, kp = 0.335 at x = 0.3, then decrease with the change of BT. The tanδ increases and the Qm shows a downward trend with the rise of x, tanδ = 1.9 % and Qm = 72.71 respectively at x = 0.24. According to the XRD results, the phase structure in the MPB range is formed near x = 0.3 of the sample. For the ceramic with the MPB structure, the drive energy required for the domain wall movement of the ceramics is lowered, and the domain activity is increased so the piezoelectric property can be improved remarkably [25,41,42]. The main reason for the decrease of Qm and the increase of tanδ is that with the BT content increases, the oxygen vacancies decrease due to the change of Fe3+ to Fe2+. Furthermore, the reduction of oxygen vacancies makes it easier to turn the domain, which makes tanδ increase, Qm decrease and increases the aging rate of ceramics.
At room temperature, the P-E hysteresis loop are depicted as Fig. 4, and P, E, Pr, Ec represent polarization intensity, applied electric field, residual polarization intensity and coercive field, respectively. The used electric field in ferroelectric behavior test is from 30 kV/cm to 60 kV/cm. From the Fig. 4, typical ferroelectric polarization hysteresis loops were shown. Except for x = 0.24, the remaining ceramics samples are in a relatively saturated state when E is 60 kV/cm. As we can see from Fig. 4(g) when x rises from 0.24 to 0.26, Pr and Ec increase significantly. Pr slowly increases to a maximum 20.13 μC/cm2 at x = 0.34, the Ec reaches 33.77 kV/cm which is the maximum value at x = 0.26 and then it shows a decreasing trend. The reason why Pr increases is that favorable uniformity of grain size and the improving densification of structure with the increase of BT content, which means the more completed polarization and stronger ferroelectric properties. The sudden increase for Ec is caused by the decrease in grain size when x = 0.24 to 0.26. The increase of grain boundaries makes it difficult to flip the domain [16,17,18], the Pr becomes larger slightly, but Ec becomes smaller as the grain continues to decrease. It is noted in Fig. 4(e-f) that the hysteresis loop is not smooth under the E of 60 kV/cm, this is because the high electric field caused the ceramic sample to leak current [14,16].
Fig. 5(a-f) shows the er and tanδ of all samples, er represents dielectric constant and tanδ represents loss tangent. The frequencies are 1 kHz, 10 kHz and 100 kHz, respectively. All ceramic samples have good temperature dependence from room temperature to 700℃. The er varies little when the temperature increase at the beginning, it rapidly increases to the peak at a certain temperature (Tc), and finally decreases. As shown in Fig. 5(g), Tc reaches the maximum of 580℃ when x = 0.24, and Curie temperature reduces with the increase of BT. The tanδ increases before reaching the Tc when the rang of x is 0.24 to 0.28. And the tanδ decreases at the Curie point, increases again with the temperature increases. When x ≥ 0.30, the tanδ increases rapidly after Curie point decreases.
According to the modified Curie-Weiss law:
where the curve of ln(1/er − 1/em) as a function of ln(T − Tm) for the ceramics, which are presented in Fig. 5(h). In the formula, em is the maximum value of er, Tm denotes phase transition temperature, C is Curie-like constant and γ is degree of diffuseness. Furthermore, the range of γ is from 1 to 2, where 1 represents a normal ferroelectric, 2 represents ideal relaxor ferroelectric [29]. It can be seen from Fig. 5(a-f), all (1-x)BF-xBT-BZT ceramics are relaxor ferroelectrics. Under the Tc, with the increase of frequency (1 kHz to 100 kHz), the er decreases, the tanδ generates (x < 0.30), the dielectric peak and the loss peak move toward the high temperature, all of which are caused by the frequency dispersion characteristics of relaxation ferroelectrics [16]. Above the Tc, the tanδ of the samples increase again because the ceramics have a slight leakage current at high temperature. With the increase of x, the Curie temperature reduces, which is due to the increase of dielectric loss at room temperature which caused by oxygen vacancy in the sintering process. It is worth noting that when x < 0.3, with the frequency increases, the er decreases before the Curie point. And when x ≥ 0.3, the loss peak disappears, which is due to the reason that the frequency dispersion of the relaxed ferroelectric weakened. The trend of er and tanδ for all (1-x)BF-xBT-BZT samples is consistent with γ of relaxation ferroelectrics.
The depolarization curve of the (1-x)BF-xBT-BZT ceramics is depicted in the Fig. 6. The d33 of the samples as a function of temperature was measured by ex - situ d33 method. With the increase of temperature, there is no obvious change for d33. When a certain temperature (Td) arrives, the d33 drops suddenly [26,43]. For ceramic samples with x = 0.24, when the depolarization temperature is 550℃, d33 = 85 pC/N. When x = 0.3 and Td = 530℃, the d33 is still as high as 150 pC/N. The figure shows that depolarization law of all ceramic samples is consistent with the variation of the Curie temperature as Fig. 5(g). When the BT content ranges from 0.24 to 0.34, the decrease of depolarization temperature is due to the increasing loss for the ceramics, as described in Fig. 3(b). When x = 0.3, the high d33 is caused by the ceramic at MPB.