Influence of MoO3 on electrical properties and thermal depolarization of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-BaTiO3 lead-free piezoceramics

In this work, electric properties of undoped and MoO3-doped 0.93Bi(0.5)Na(0.5)TiO(3)-0.07BaTiO(3) ceramics (BNT-BT: xmol.% MoO3) are systematically studied. At room temperature, the optimum piezoelectric property (d(33)=177.0 pC/N) was observed in BNT-BT: 0.10Mo ceramics, with remanent polarization (P-r=32.15 mu C/cm(2)), electromechanical coupling coefficient (k(t)=0.578, k(p)=0.169, k(31)=0.180), and mechanical quality factor (Q(m)=90.3). Mo doping was found to have a positive effect on the depolarization temperature T-d, and k(31) showed excellent thermal stability at BNT-BT: 0.05Mo ceramics. These findings confirm that Mo doping is an effective method to improve BNT-based lead-free ceramics.