engineering

List of piezoelectric materials

List of piezoelectric materials is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of piezoelectric materials rather than just read about it. In short: This page lists properties of several commonly used piezoelectric materials. Piezoelectric materials (PMs) can be broadly classified as either crystalline, ceramic, or polymeric.

Key takeaways

List of piezoelectric materials belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of piezoelectric materials to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of piezoelectric materials from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This page lists properties of several commonly used piezoelectric materials. Piezoelectric materials (PMs) can be broadly classified as either crystalline, ceramic, or polymeric. The most commonly produced piezoelectric ceramics are lead zirconate titanate (PZT), barium titanate, and lead titanate. Gallium nitride and zinc oxide can also be regarded as a ceramic due to their relatively wide band gaps. Semiconducting PMs offer features such as compatibility with integrated circuits and semiconductor devices. Inorganic ceramic PMs offer advantages over single crystals, including ease of fabrication into a variety of shapes and sizes not constrained crystallographic directions. Organic polymer PMs, such as PVDF, have low Young's modulus compared to inorganic PMs. Piezoelectric polymers (PVDF, 240 mV-m/N) possess higher piezoelectric stress constants (g33), an important parameter in sensors, than ceramics (PZT, 11 mV-m/N), which show that they can be better sensors than ceramics. Moreover, piezoelectric polymeric sensors and actuators, due to their processing flexibility, can be readily manufactured into large areas, and cut into a variety of shapes. In addition polymers also exhibit high strength, high impact resistance, low dielectric constant, low elastic stiffness, and low density, thereby a high voltage sensitivity which is a desirable characteristic along with low acoustic and mechanical impedance useful for medical and underwater applications. Among PMs, PZT ceramics are popular as they have a high sensitivity, a high g33 value. They are however brittle. Furthermore, they show low Curie temperature, leading to constraints in terms of applications in harsh environmental conditions. However, promising is the integration of ceramic disks into industrial appliances moulded from plastic. This resulted in the development of PZT-polymer composites, and the feasible integration of functional PM composites on large scale, by simple thermal welding or by conforming processes. Several approaches towards lead-free ceramic PM have been reported, such as piezoelectric single crystals (langasite), and ferroelectric ceramics with a perovskite structure and bismuth layer-structured ferroelectrics (BLSF), which have been extensively researched. Also, several ferroelectrics with perovskite-structure (BaTiO3 [BT], (Bi1/2Na1/2) TiO3 [BNT], (Bi1/2K1/2) TiO3 [BKT], KNbO3 [KN], (K, Na) NbO3 [KNN]) have been investigated for their piezoelectric properties.

Key piezoelectric properties The following table lists the following properties for piezoelectric materials

The piezoelectric coefficients (d33, d31, d15 etc.) measure the strain induced by an applied voltage (expressed as meters per volt). High dij coefficients indicate larger displacements which are needed for motoring transducer devices. The coefficient d33 measures deformation in the same direction (polarization axis) as the induced potential, whereas d31 describes the response when the force is applied perpendicular to the polarization axis. The d15 coefficient measures the response when the applied mechanical stress is due to shear deformation. Relative permittivity (εr) is the ratio between the absolute permittivity of the piezoelectric material, ε, and the vacuum permittivity, ε0. The electromechanical coupling factor k is an indicator of the effectiveness with which a piezoelectric material converts electrical energy into mechanical energy, or converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. The first subscript to k denotes the direction along which the electrodes are applied; the second denotes the direction along which the mechanical energy is applied, or developed. The mechanical quality factor Qm is an important high-power property of piezoelectric ceramics. It is the inverse of the mechanical loss tan Φ.

Table

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of piezoelectric materials

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of piezoelectric materials claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of piezoelectric materials before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of piezoelectric materials ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of piezoelectric materials

In research: List of piezoelectric materials appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of piezoelectric materials in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of piezoelectric materials is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Energy harvesting, Microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems, Piezoelectric materials, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of piezoelectric materials outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study List of piezoelectric materials in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of piezoelectric materials means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of piezoelectric materials out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of piezoelectric materials in simple terms?

This page lists properties of several commonly used piezoelectric materials. Piezoelectric materials (PMs) can be broadly classified as either crystalline, ceramic, or polymeric.

Why does List of piezoelectric materials matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of piezoelectric materials?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of piezoelectric materials.