Nano-PieZoelecTrics · Novel Nanoporous PZT Materials for Efficient Utrasonic Biomedical Sensors

Novel Nanoporous PZT Materials for Efficient Utrasonic Biomedical Sensors

State of the art and impact on society. Piezoelectric materials have become a key technology for a wide range of industrial and consumer products. Piezoceramics is the largest material group for piezoelectric devices, and, currently, the strongest demand comes from ultrasonic transducer for medical diagnostics and therapy (with € 1.8 billion, represents the third largest market in the world), which are gaining ever-increasing importance among piezo-device suppliers. In this field, particular attention has been received by 3D and new generation 4D ultrasonic transducers (commonly known as medical probes) widely used to visualize the internal condition of the human body without damaging them in various medical inspections including prenatal examinations to which radiography cannot be applied. The most-commonly piezoceramics materials used, the highly-dense PZT ceramics with general formula Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3, are characterized by high values of density and relative permittivity, which negatively influence the performance and limit their application in the ultrasonic devices. Furthermore, the presence of a lead-based material can be considered a critical issue for device working in contact with biological tissues. Objectives. Among the lead-free candidates, KxNa1-xNbO3 (KNN) has become one of the most investigated lead-free piezoelectric system. Despite the enormous efforts promoted by the scientific community to achieve KNN systems with similar properties of PZT in acoustic devices, the targets achieved are still far and not suitable for a rapid penetration into the market. For these reason, among the most important objectives fixed of this project, there was the synthesis of high performing KNN-based materials by using a novel fabrication approach and dopants. Main results. Along this horizon the research project Nanopiezoelectrics has been properly conducted exploiting advanced synthetic routes and achieving several results in terms of performance of the specimens fabricated. The research activity was addressed to accomplish several goals using different approaches through solid state reaction and sol gel routes, in order to fabricate the active and matching layers with high piezoelectric properties. As main results, KNN ceramics (as active layer) was opportunely doped with MgNb2O6 (MN) compound and Li ions. The both systems present significant improvement in terms of piezoelectric and electromechanical properties. For the first doped system, MgNb2O6, it was for the first time used in the current literature representing one of the novelty of this project. The experiments revealed the several benefits of this novel dopant which can be used for industrial application in transducer devices.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз