A Perspective on the Design of Lead-Free Piezoceramics

Dear Colleagues,

Lead-free piezoceramics have been extensively investigated in the past decade because of the need to find a promising candidate for replacing lead-based ones. The trigger of the frantic pace into lead-free piezoceramics research can be awarded to a publication by Saito et al. in 2004 (Nature 2004, 432, 84-87), which opened up the real possibility of replacing lead-containing piezoceramics, represented by Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃, PZT, with non-toxic alternatives. Three main solid solution families have been widely recognized as potential environmentally-friendly candidates: (K,Na)NbO₃,  KNN-based, (Bi,Na)TiO₃, BNT-based, and (Ba,Ca)(Zr,Ti)O₃, BCZT-based, materials. In addition, a fourth family based on Aurivillius structures (Bi-based layered structure) with properties, with which PZT cannot compete, but has proven interesting in applications working at high temperaturas, must be included.

Many novel lead-free piezoceramics have been developed since then by manipulating the doping, morphotropic phase boundary, MPB, and/or Polymorphic phase boundary, PPB, as well as microstructure. Physical chemistry effects all of these, enabling, for example, the tuning and engineering of the functional response of these materials. This Special Issue broadly tries to cover the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of lead-free piezoceramics, including their synthesis and processing, chemical and microstructure characterization, theory and modelling of their physical properties, and their future practical applications. Emphasis is put on the systematic review of the major developments in the field of lead-free piezoceramics, as well on some suggestions for the future development of new materials, will also be addressed.

Prof. Dr. José Francisco Fernández
Dr. Fernando Rubio-Marcos
Guest Editors

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