| A new group of lead free piezoelectric perovskite solid solutions, (1- x)Bi(B'B")O3-xABO3, were obtained via solid-state processing techniques. The solubility of unstable perovskite Bi(B'B'')O3 compounds into stable perovskite compounds was found to be related to the tolerance factor of the ABO3 perovskite endmembers. The morphotropic phase boundary (MBP) in perovskite solid solutions based on (1-x)Bi(Zn1/2Ti1/2)O3-xBaTiO3 has been measured at x≈0.9 by x-ray diffraction (XRD). Most of the work in this thesis was focused on the structure and electrical behavior of Bi(Zn 1/2Ti1/2)O3 (BZT) solid solutions with different ABO3 end members.;Dielectric characterization revealed that the trend of transition temperature Tm as a function of composition for BZT-ABO3 solid solutions can be described by two types. In the first type, Tm decreased linearly or non-linearly until a second phase appeared, e.g. BZT-(Bi 1/2K1/2)TiO3. In the second type, Tm decreased to a minimum (usually below room temperature) and then increased as BZT content increased, e.g. BZT-BaTiO3. In addition, with substitution of Li for Na in Bi(Zn1/2Ti1/2)O3-NaNbO3 the diffuseness of the transition peak decreased and transition temperature increased. Hysteresis measurements indicated that the ferroelectric state of NaNbO 3, (Bi1/2K1/2)TiO3 and BaTiO3 can be induced or enhanced with small amounts of BZT. However, added BZT content resulted in the transition from a normal ferroelectric state to quasi-relaxor state. The ternary system BiScO3-Bi(Zn1/2Ti 1/2)O3-BaTiO3 was also studied in terms of structure and dielectric behavior. |
