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

Single crystalsReferenceMaterial & heterostructure used for the characterization (electrodes/material, electrode/substrate)OrientationPiezoelectric coefficients, d (pC/N)Relative permittivity, εrElectromechanical coupling factor, kQuality factorHutson 1963Hutson, Andrew R. "Piezoelectric devices utilizing aluminum nitride." U.S. Patent 3,090,876, issued May 21, 1963.AlNd15 = -4.07perε33 = 11.4d31 = -2d33 = 5Cook et al. 1963BaTiO3d15 = 392ε11 = 2920k15 = 0.57d31 = -34.5ε33 = 168k31 = 0.315d33 = 85.6k33 = 0.56Warner et al. 1967LiNbO3 (Au-Au)<001>d15 = 68ε11 = 84d22 = 21ε33 = 30d31 = -1k31 = 0.02d33 = 6kt = 0.17Smith et al. 1971LiNbO3<001>d15 = 69.2ε11 = 85.2d22 = 20.8ε33 = 28.2d31 = -0.85d33 = 6Yamada et al. 1967LiNbO3 (Au-Au)<001>d15 = 74ε11 = 84.6d22 = 21ε33 = 28.6k22 = 0.32d31 = -0.87k31 = 0.023d33 = 16k33 = 0.47Yamada et al. 1969LiTaO3d15 = 26ε11 = 53d22 = 8.5ε33 = 44d31 = -3d33 = 9.2Cao et al. 2002PMN-PT (33%)d15 = 146ε11 = 1660k15 = 0.32d31 = -1330ε33 = 8200k31 = 0.59d33 = 2820k33 = 0.94kt = 0.64Badel et al. 2006PMN-25PT<110>d31 = -643ε33 = 2560k31 = -0.73362Kobiakov 1980ZnOd15 = -8.3ε11 = 8.67k15 = 0.199d31 = -5.12ε33 = 11.26k31 = 0.181d33 = 12.3k33 = 0.466Zgonik et al. 1994ZnO (pure with lithium dopant)d15 = -13.3kr = 8.2d31 = -4.67d33 = 12.0Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals (single domain)d33 = 90Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals (single domain)d33 = 224Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals neutral (domain size of 100 ľm)d33 = 235ε33 = 1984k33 = 54.4Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals neutral (domain size of 60 ľm)d33 = 241ε33 = 1959k33 = 55.9Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals (domain size of 22 ľm)d33 = 256ε33 = 2008k33 = 64.7Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals neutral (domain size of 15 ľm)d33 = 274ε33 = 2853k33 = 66.1Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals neutral (domain size of 14 ľm)d33 = 289ε33 = 1962k33 = 66.7Zgonik et al. 1994BaTiO3 single crystals neutrald33 = 331ε33 = 2679k33 = 65.2LN crystald31 = -4.5

d33 = -0.27Li et al. 2010PMNT31d33 = 2000ε33 = 5100k31 = 80d31 = -750Zhang et al. 2002PMNT31-A1400ε33 = 3600Zhang et al. 2002PMNT31-B1500ε33 = 4800Zhang et al. 2002PZNT4.5d33 = 2100ε33 = 4400k31 = 83d31 = -900Zhang et al. 2004PZNT8d33 = 2500ε33 = 6000k31 = 89d31 = -1300Zhang et al. 2004PZNT12d33 = 576ε33 = 870k31 = 52d31 = -217Yamashita et al. 1997PSNT33ε33 = 960/Yasuda et al. 2001PINT28700ε33 = 1500/Guo et al. 2003PINT342000ε33 = 5000/Hosono et al. 2003PIMNT1950ε33 = 3630/Zhang et al. 2002PYNT40d33 = 1200ε33 = 2700k31 = 76d31 = -500Zhang et al. 2012PYNT45d33 = 2000ε33 = 2000k31 = 78Zhang et al. 2003BSPT57d33 = 1200ε33 = 3000k31 = 77d31 = -560Zhang et al. 2003BSPT58d33 = 1400ε33 = 3200k31 = 80d31 = -670Zhang et al. 2004BSPT66d33 = 440ε33 = 820k31 = 52d31 = -162Ye et al. 2008BSPT57d33 = 1150 d31 = -520ε33 = 3000k31 = 0.52 k33 = 0.91Ye et al. 2008BSPT66d33 = 440ε33 = 820k31 = 0.52 k33 = 0.88d31 = -162Ye et al. 2008PZNT4.5d33 = 2000 d31 = -970ε33 = 5200k31 = 0.50 k33 = 0.91Ye et al. 2008PZNT8d31 = -1455ε33 = 7700k31 = 0.60 k33 = 0.94Ye et al. 2008PZNT12d33 = 576 d31 = -217ε33 = 870k31 = 0.52 k33 = 0.86Ye et al. 2008PMNT33d33 = 2820 d31 = -1330ε33 = 8200k31 = 0.59 k33 = 0.94Matsubara et al. 2004KCN-modified KNNd33 = 100 d31 = -180ε33 = 220–330kp = 33–391200Ryu et al. 2007KZT modifiedKNNd33 = 126ε33 = 590kp = 4258Matsubara et al. 2005KCT modified KNNd33 = 190ε33 =kp = 421300Wang et al. 2007Bi2O3 doped KNNd33 = 127ε33 = 1309kp = 28.3Jiang et al. 2009doped KNN-0.005BFd33 = 257ε33 = 361kp= 5245 CeramicsReferenceMaterial & heterostructure used for the characterization (electrodes/material, electrode/substrate)OrientationPiezoelectric coefficients, d (pC/N)Relative permittivity, εrElectromechanical coupling factor, kQuality factorBerlincourt et al. 1958BaTiO3d15 = 270ε11 = 1440k15 = 0.57d31 = -79ε33 = 1680k31 = 0.49d33 = 191k33 = 0.47Tang et al. 2011BFOd33 = 37kt = 0.6Zhang et al. 1999PMN-PTd31 = -74ε33 = 1170k31 = -0.312283PZT-5Ad31 = -171ε33 = 1700k31 = 0.34d33 = 374k33 = 0.7PZT-5Hd15 = 741ε11 = 3130k15 = 0.6865d31 = -274ε33 = 3400k31 = 0.39d33 = 593k33 = 0.75Morgan Electroceramics Co., Ltd (http://www.morganelectroceramics.com )PZT-5Kd33 = 870ε33 = 6200k33 = 0.75Tanaka et al. 2009PZN7%PTd33 = 2400εr = 6500k33 = 0.94