Antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition in lead zinc niobate modified lead zirconate ceramics: crystal studies, microstructure, thermal and electrical properties

The combination of antiferroelectric PbZrO3 (PZ) and relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3 was prepared via the columbite precursor method. The basic characterizations were performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), linear thermal expansion, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques, dielectric spectroscopy, and hysteresis measurement. The XRD result indicated that the solid solubility limit of the (1-x)PZ-xPZN system was about x=0.40. The crystal structure of (1-x)PZ-xPZN transformed from orthorhombic to rhombohedral symmetry when the concentration of PZN was increased. A ferroelectric intermediate phase began to appear between the paraelectric and antiferroelectric phases of pure PZ, with increasing PZN content. In addition, the temperature range of the ferroelectric phase increased with increasing PZN concentration. The morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in this system was located close to the composition, x=0.20.