Effect of different templates on structure evolution and large strain response under a low electric field in ⟨001⟩-textured lead-free BNT-based piezoelectric ceramics

< 001 >-textured 0.83Na(0.5)Bi(0.5)TiO(3)-0.17Bi(0.5)K(0.5)TiO(3) (BNT-BKT) ceramics with high degree of texturing (>80%) were synthesized by templated grain growth using different perovskite plate-like BaTiO3, SrTiO3 and NaNbO3 as template particles to develop lead-free piezoelectric materials with an excellent actuating performance. The effects of different template particles addition to BNT-BKT ceramics on the grain orientation, structure evolution, phase stability and macroscopic functional properties was systematically investigated. BaTiO3 template particles addition to form < 001 >-textured BNT-BKT-BT textured ceramics suppresses an electric-field-induced long-range ferroelectric order, giving rise to a high field-induced S-max/E-max of 710 pm/V under a relatively low driving field of 45 kV/cm compared with existing lead-free Bi-perovskite ceramics. In particular, temperature-dependent strain response reveals that < 001 >-textured BNT-BKT-5BT ceramics exhibit not only large S-max/E-max at a low driving field of 45 kV/cm at room temperature but also enhanced the temperature stability of S-max/E-max featured by large S-max/E-max of 517 pm/V at high temperature. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.