Effect of epoxy resin addition on the acoustic impedance, microstructure, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of 1-3 connectivity lead-free barium zirconate titanate ceramic cement-based composites

In this work, 1-3 connectivity barium zirconate titanate ceramic cement-based composites were fabricated using Portland cement and epoxy resin as the matrix. Barium zirconate titanate (BZT) of 40-60 % by volume was used while epoxy was used with cement at 0-7% by volume. Dielectric and piezoelectric properties, and other properties such as acoustic impedance, density and microstructure were investigated. It was found that epoxy resin can be used in combination with BZT to achieve a suitable acoustic impedance value (9-11 x 106 kg/m & sdot;s2) matching that of concrete for structural health monitoring application. Thus, when epoxy resin was used at 7 %, BZT volume can be increased to 60 % where the highest d33 value of 93 pC/N was found and remain within the acoustic matching range. In addition, when epoxy resin was increased, both piezoelectric charge coefficient (d33) and piezoelectric voltage coefficient (g33) were also found to increase. This is likely due to the lower porosity thus denser matrix when epoxy resin was used in addition to cement.