Piezoelectric properties of textured Bi 3.25 La 0.75 Ti 2.97 V 0.03 O 12 ceramics fabricated by reactive templated grain growth method Chang Won Ahn & Euh Duck Jeong & Young Hyeok Kim & Jae Shin Lee & Gwiy Sang Chung & Jae Young Lee & Ill Won Kim Received: 28 May 2007 / Accepted: 18 March 2008 / Published online: 15 April 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract We have fabricated Bi 3.25 La 0.75 Ti 2.97 V 0.03 O 12 (BLTV) ceramics by reactive templated grain growth method using a Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 template and investigated the electromechanical coupling coefficient (k) and temperature coefficient of a resonant frequency as a function of temperature. The highly preferentially [00l] oriented BLTV ceramics were obtained and the grain-orientation factor (Lotgering factor) was 83%. The electromechanical cou- pling coefficient of the longitudinal vibration mode (k 33 ) and the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency of textured BLTV ceramics were enhanced compared to those of nontextured BLTV ceramics. Keywords Lead-free . Reactive templated grain growth . Piezoelectricity . Bismuth titanate 1 Introduction In recent years, bismuth layer-structured ferroelectrics (BLSF) have been intensively investigated as novel ferroelectric materials to replace conventional Pb-based ferroelectrics [1] (e.g., PbTiO 3 and Pb(Zr,Ti)O 3 ) because of their excellent piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties. BLSF are characterized by their low dielectric constant, high Curie temperature, and large anisotropy in the electromechanical coupling [2–5]. Therefore, the BLSF ceramics are seen as superior candidates for lead-free piezoelectric materials with high Curie temperature and anisotropic characteristics. One of the BLSF compounds, Lanthanium and vanadium co-substituted bismuth titanate (Bi 3.25 La 0.75 Ti 2.97 V 0.03 O 12 , BLTV) ceramics and thin films are reported with high ferroelectric performance such as high dielectric strength, relatively large remanent polarization (P r ), low coercive field (E c ), and low leakage current. Therefore BLTV compounds are candidates for lead-free piezoelectric materials [6–9]. In this paper, in order to improve the lead-free pi- ezoelectric ceramics, we study the effect of grain orienta- tion in the lead-free Bi 3.25 La 0.75 Ti 2.97 V 0.03 O 12 ceramics. We have prepared two kinds of samples. One type of ceramics was fabricated by a conventional solid state reaction method. Whereas other type textured ceramics, was fabricated by the reactive templated grain growth (RTGG sample) using plate-like Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 particles. We have investigated their ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. J Electroceram (2009) 23:392–396 DOI 10.1007/s10832-008-9474-6 C. W. Ahn : E. D. Jeong Busan Center, Korea Basic Science Institute, Busan 609-735, South Korea Y. H. Kim : J. S. Lee School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, South Korea G. S. Chung School of Electrical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, South Korea J. Y. Lee : I. W. Kim (*) Department of Physics, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, South Korea e-mail: kimiw@mail.ulsan.ac.kr