Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ceramics International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ceramint 0.37BF-0.31PMN-0.32PT: A superior piezo-/pyro-/ferro-electric ternary ceramic at MPB Abhilash J. Joseph a , Nidhi Sinha b , Sahil Goel a , Abid Hussain a , Binay Kumar a, ⁎ a Crystal Lab, Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India b Department of Electronics, SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: B. Grain size B. Electron microscopy C. Ferroelectric properties C. Piezoelectric properties True-remanent hysteresis ABSTRACT A near morphotropic phase boundary composition 0.37BF-0.31PMN-0.31PT has been synthesized using the conventional solid-state reaction method. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a dense microstructure of the ternary ceramic system. A high piezoelectric coefficient (d 33 * = 572 pm/V) was revealed from the displacement- voltage curve (butterfly loop). An excellent pyroelectric response was displayed by the ceramic in the tem- perature range of 30–80 °C. Good saturated ferroelectric loops with good fatigue resistant characteristic and high value of remanent polarization (P r = 60.62 μC/cm 2 ) and coercive field (E c = 18.77 kV/cm) were obtained for the synthesized ceramic. Apart from the conventional method used for reporting the P r value, which is normally larger than the practically usable (remanent) polarization component, true-remanent hysteresis task was used to isolate the non-remanent component and hence reveal the true-remanent component of polarization which was found to be ~ 80% that of the conventional P r value suggesting low leakage contributions in the ternary ceramic system. Time-dependent compensated hysteresis task was performed to study the resistive-leakage nature of the ceramic, which is a frequency dependent parameter. 1. Introduction Perovskite materials have been technologically important because they display interesting dielectric, electromechanical and ferroelectric properties [1–5]. Therefore, a rapid progress in the synthesis of ferro- electric materials with perovskite structure and improvement of its ferroelectric properties continues to mushroom till date. Lead-based perovskite materials like PbZrO 3 -PbTiO 3 (PZT), Pb(Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 - PbTiO 3 (PZN-PT), Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 (PMN-PT) etc., display excellent dielectric piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties around morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), which makes them suitable for actuators, transducers, and memory applications [6–9]. Lead-based materials used for actuators and sensors have shown a high piezo- response with a piezoelectric coefficient (d 33 ) as high as 600 pm/V [10]. Of all the lead-based perovskite ferroelectric materials, works on PMN-PT and PMN-PT based systems have been extensively reported over the past few decades [11]. The composition of (1-x)PMN-xPT, near MPB (x = 30–35 mol%), displays high values of d 33 (~ 700 pC/N) and high electromechanical coupling coefficient (k p ~ 61%) [12]. Further, Tarale et al. [13] have reported the ferroelectric properties of different compositions of (1-x)PMN-xPT ceramics, where the value of remanent polarization was found to range from 18 to 26 μC/cm 2 whereas the value of the coercive field (E c ) had the values between 3 and 10 kV/cm. Hussain et al.[14] also reported the P r and E c value of 0.9PMN-0.1PT to be ~ 13 μC/cm 2 and 7.5 kV/cm, respectively. All the above-mentioned properties make PMN-PT a potential candidate for various sensors and electronic applications. However, the low transition temperature (~ 160 °C) [13] and low depolarizing field, limits their applications in harsh conditions, which intrigued material scientist to search for new high quality novel ferro- electric materials for device applications. One strategy is to make use of the flexible nature of perovskite material which enables incorporation of different elements in its structure. By using the stereochemical ac- tivity of cation on the A-site which has a lone pair (e.g. Bi 3+ or Pb 2+ ), one can engineer its functionality to enhance the electromechanical response [15].Efforts to circumvent these issues or drawbacks, led to the synthesis of new-generation ceramics like ternary systems of PMN- PZT-PT [16], PMN-PIN-PT [17], and PYN-PMN-PT [18], which have been investigated and reported to have improved characteristics than PMN-PT. These ternary ceramics show high T c (i.e. better thermal stability), large coercive field, which means low depolarization and good aging characteristics. Also, they display significantly improved dielectric and piezoelectric properties as compared to PMN-PT https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2018.07.089 Received 8 June 2018; Received in revised form 9 July 2018; Accepted 9 July 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: bkumar@physics.du.ac.in (B. Kumar). Ceramics International xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0272-8842/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Joseph, A.J., Ceramics International (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2018.07.089