A gravity-driven sintering method to fabricate geometrically complex compact piezoceramics.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34663834.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-26373-x and PMC identifier 8523652.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Highly compact and geometrically complex piezoceramics are required by a variety of electromechanical devices owing to their outstanding piezoelectricity, mechanical stability and extended application scenarios. 3D printing is currently the mainstream technology for fabricating geometrically complex piezoceramic components. However, it is hard to print piezoceramics in a curve shape while also keeping its compactness due to restrictions on the ceramic loading and the viscosity of feedstocks. Here, we report a gravity-driven sintering (GDS) process to directly fabricate curved and compact piezoceramics by exploiting gravitational force and high-temperature viscous behavior of sintering ceramic specimens. The sintered lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics possess curve geometries that can be facilely tuned via the initial mechanical boundary design, and exhibit high piezoelectric properties comparable to those of conventional-sintered compact PZT (d<sub>33</sub> = 595 pC/N). In contrast to 3D printing technology, our GDS process is suitable for scale-up production and low-cost production of piezoceramics with diverse curved surfaces. Our GDS strategy is an universal and facile route to fabricate curved piezoceramics and other functional ceramics with no compromise of their functionalities.