THERMAL DEGRADATION AND AGING OF HIGH TEMPERATURE PIEZOELECTRIC CERAMICS

Piezoelectric materials have numerous applications like high temperature accelerometers, pressure, flow and NDT transducers, acoustic emission, ultrasonic cleaning, welding, high voltage generators, medical therapy etc. The commonly used piezoelectric material, PZT continues to dominate the commercial market for piezoelectric actuators applications. The primary limitations of PZT are the lower Curie temperature TC \u3c390oC and rapid thermal degradation avobe 200oC. Continuing efforts are focused on the development of piezoelectric materials suitable for high temperature applications \u3e200oC. These materials will be very useful for making sensors for space exploration, oil and geothermal well drilling tools, oil & gas pipeline health monitoring and automotive smart brakes. Recently material based on (1-x)Bi(Me)O3-xPbTiO3 developed with TC~460oC, and d33~500 pC/N compared to TC~390oC and d33~220 pC/N of pure PZT. Enhanced room temperature properties and higher transition temperature makes this material interesting for further investigation as a high temperature piezoelectric material. Reliability of technological piezoelectric devices is a major concern for their applications. Many piezoelectric materials undergo a process of aging, associated with a spontaneous decrease of electromechanical properties. In the current work thermal degradation and aging behavior of high temperature piezoelectric material BSPT was evaluated and compared with the commonly used PZT