Enhancement of mechanical and ferroelectric properties by adding Ag nano-particles to PZT matrix

Abstract

In the present study, detailed and systematic characterization on the small percentage silver particle reinforced piezoelectric nano-composites were presented. PZT/Ag nano-composties were fabricated with quite small quantity of silver added, which is about 0-1% in weight or equivalently 0∼0.73% in volume fraction. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to observe the microstructure of the composites fabricated. Mechanical and ferroelectric properties, including Young's modulus, hardness, hysteresis, and butterfly loops, were measured to investigate the effects of silver nano-particles on the properties of the nano-composites. The SEM observations showed the modified microstructure of decreased porosity and increased grain size, which led to a significant improvement of both the mechanical and ferroelectric properties. © SAGE Publications 2008.