Structural, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of (1-x) Pb (Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 ) O 3 –x Sm Cr O 3 ceramics F. Kahoul *1,2 , L. Hamzioui 1,2 , A. Guemache 1 , M.Aillerie 3,4 , A. Boutarfaia 2 1 Université de M’Sila, Département Socle Commun ST, Faculté de Technologie, M’Sila 28000 Algérie 2 Université de Biskra, Département de Chimie, Laboratoire de Chimie Appliquée, B. P. 145, RB-Biskra 07000 Algérie 3 Université de Lorraine, LMOPS, EA 4423, 57070 Metz, France 4 Centrale Supelec, LMOPS, 57070 Metz, France fares.kahoul@univ-msila.dz Abstract— This work reported the structural, dielectric, and piezoelectric behavior of (1-x) Pb (Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 ) O 3 – x Sm Cr O 3 ceramics (abbreviated as PZTSC, where x = 0.005, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02 and 0.025), were prepared by the traditional solid-state reaction method. The phase transition, microstructure, dielectric, piezoelectric properties, and the temperature stability of the ceramics were investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that as-prepared ceramics were of pure perovskite phase and the possible morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) between the tetragonal and rhombohedral phase compositions were located near the SC content of x ≥ 0.02, confirmed by their corresponding dielectric and piezoelectric properties. All specimens present high relative density above 97%, indicating a wide sintering window for this system. Microstructural investigations of all the samples reveal that SC doping inhibits grain growth. The dielectric and piezoelectric properties show a maximum response at x ≥ 0.02, which corresponds to the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). Keywords— XRD, Dielectric Properties, Piezoelectric Properties, MPB, Density I. INTRODUCTION The high power characteristics of piezoelectric materials have been investigated for device applications in ultrasonic motors, piezoelectric actuators, piezoelectric transformers, ultrasonic vibrator, filter, blue luminescence and resonator, and medical applications [1–5]. For high-power multilayer piezoelectric device applications, piezoelectric materials are electrically driven to high mechanical vibration near the resonance frequencies, leading to a temperature rising and deterioration of piezoelectric properties with the increase of their vibration velocities [6,7]. Therefore, the lead-based piezoelectric ceramics should have high piezoelectric constant (d 31 ), high electromechanical coupling factor (k p ), high mechanical quality factor (Q m ), and good temperature stability [8,9]. The Pb(Zr x Ti 1-x )O 3 system and its modified solid solutions are known to exhibit excellent dielectric and elastic properties at the “Morphotropic Phase Boundary (MPB)” [10–13]. This MPB is believed to be a coexistence region of two phases namely, tetragonal and rhombohedral phases and still is a topic of great debate [14–22]. In general, PZT system ceramics should be sintered at high temperatures between1100 and 1300 °C in order to obtain complete densification. Accordingly, environmental pollution due to its PbO evaporation and the use of expansive Pd rich Ag/Pd internal electrode in case of manufacturing multilayer ceramic actuator are inevitable. Hence, to reduce its sintering temperature, various kinds of material processing methods such as hot pressing, high energy mill, liquid phase sintering, and using ultra fine powder have been performed. Among these methods, liquid phase sintering is basically an effective method for aiding densification at low temperature. The theoretical explanation for liquid phase sintering was already reported over 40 years ago. In this work, the phase structure, density, electrical properties, low-temperature sintering and temperature characteristics of PZTSC piezoelectric ceramics were described systemically. The aim of the work was to find out the optimized content of Sm 2 O 5 and Cr 2 O 3 , which can make this system have higher electrical properties for multilayer piezoelectric device applications. II. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE PZTSC ceramics having the chemical formula of (1-x) Pb (Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 ) O 3 – x Sm Cr O 3 , where x = 0.005, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02 and 0.025), were prepared by the mixed oxide route. An appropriate mixture of pure oxides (purities ˃99 %) were ball milled for 24 h using ZrO 2 media with distilled water. The mixture was then dried and calcined at 850 °C for 3h. The calcined powder was again ball milled to achieve1.2 μm particle size. This was followed by mixing of 10 wt.% of PVA as a binder in the calcined powder and the specimens were pressed using uniaxial press. Specimens were subsequently sintered in a PbO rich atmosphere between 1150 °C for 2 h and final dimension obtained after lapping was12 mm diameter and 1mm thickness. The density of the sintered samples was measured using Archimedes’ principle. Microstructural features such as a grain size and pores were characterized by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). The sintered pellets were electroded with high-purity silver paste and fired at 700 °C for 1 h. The samples were pooled in a silicon oil bath at 120 °C for 1 h under a static DC electrical field of 4.5 kV/mm.