Pb-free piezoelectric materials have grown in importance through increased environmental concern related to the presence of Pb and the subsequent legislation that has arisen including directives such as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). While much progress has been made on producing Pb-free bulk materials, the need to integrate these next generation Pb-free piezoelectric materials with substrates to form functional micro devices has received less attention and raises a number of challenges. With respect to the high temperature mixed oxide synthesis method, a simple, cost effective and robust low temperature molten hydroxide synthesis (MHS) method derived from the molten salt synthesis (MSS) method, has been developed to produce K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) small grain powders and is a method that lends itself easily to industrial scale up. A powder/sol gel composite ink film forming technique has been used to produce KNN thick films on silicon substrates. Characterisation of the produced films has shown the films to exhibit piezoelectric coefficients for un-doped material in the region of 30pC/N. The work will report on the Na ion favouring mechanism of the MSS and the related mechanism of the MHS. The work will also report on the dielectric and piezoelectric characteristics of initial KNN thick films produced and an investigation into use of dopants and process modification to improve the KNN thick film’s characteristics.

The topic of this thesis is synthesis and preparation of lead-free pizoceramic with perovskite structure, in particular potassium-sodium niobate (KNN). In theoretical part are described possibilities of KNN synthesis and of it’s shaping and sintering. Experimental part deals with three types of synthesis described in the theretical part – solid state reaction, hydrothermal synthesis, sol-gel synthesis, and subconsequentional shaping of prepared powders by uniaxial pressing, cold isostatic pressure method, sintering (classical in oven, in some cases SPS – spark plasma sintering) of such green body and their following properties like relative density, grain size or charge constant. Preparation of KNN powder by each described method took place, followed by shaping and sintering. Best properties were shown by SPS sintered samples, which reached the highest density and lowest grain growth.

The content of this thesis is about preparation and processing of lead-free piezoceramic materials with perovskite structure. Potassium sodium niobate (KNN) powder was prepared by solid state reaction (SSR) and liquid phase reaction (sol-gel reaction). The powders were formed by uniaxial and isostatic pressing and further sintered. The density, grain size and morphology were determined on the sintered samples. The powder, synthesised by SSR and sintered in a conventional furnace, was chosen as a standard. The maximum density achieved on samples after optimization of sintering cycle was 93 %TD. The sintering optimization involved a homogenization step at 950 °C, which promotes the correct development of the phase composition and microstructure, followed by sintering at 1120 °C. The same approach and sintering cycle were used for sintering the samples, prepared by sol-gel synthesis. The maximum density of the samples prepared by sol-gel reaction and sintered in a conventional way, was 92 %TD. For further comparison, both of the synthesised powders were sintered using SPS (spark plasma sintering), which increased their final density up to 97 %TD. The approximate value of the piezoelectric coefficient d33 (pC/N) has been measured on selected SSR samples with pure phase composition ((K0,5Na0,5)NbO3). The best measured value of d33 was around 100 pC/N.

In dieser Arbeit werden ferroelektrische Phasenübergänge in verspannten (K,Na)NbO3-Schichten erstmals mit Hilfe temperaturabhängiger dreidimensionaler Röntgenbeugung untersucht. Der Fokus liegt auf stark anisotrop verspannten Dünnschichten, die bei Raumtemperatur ein geordnetes Fischgräten-Domänenmuster mit einer periodischen Anordnung von monoklinen a1a2/MC-Phasen aufweisen. Bei Erhöhung der Temperatur durchlaufen die (K,Na)NbO3-Dünnschichten einen ferroelektrischen Phasenübergang in die orthorhombische Hochtemperaturphase, die sich durch regelmäßige, alternierenden a1/a2-Streifendomänen mit ausschließlich lateraler Polarisation auszeichnet. In-plane Röntgenmessungen zeigen, dass die Filmeinheitszellen eine kleine Verzerrung in der Ebene erfahren, was zur Bildung von vier verschiedenen Einheitszellvarianten und damit vier verschiedenen (Super-)Domänenvarianten führt. Durch den Vergleich von Röntgenbeugungsmessungen verschiedener Bragg-Reflexe an Filmen mit unterschiedlicher Schichtdicke ist es möglich, die spezifischen Beugungsmerkmale zu unterscheiden und sie den einzelnen Phasen zuzuordnen. Mit Hilfe von in situ temperaturabhängiger Röntgenbeugung ist es daher möglich, die Details des Phasenübergangs vom Fischgräten in das Streifen-Domänenmuster aufzudecken. Es zeigt sich, dass dieser sich über einen großen Temperaturbereich erstreckt und in mehreren Schritten vollzieht. Die Beobachtung von Phasenkoexistenz innerhalb des Übergangs und einer thermischen Hysterese in der Phasenübergangstemperatur lassen auf einen Phasenübergang erster Art schließen. Zudem hängt die Phasenübergangstemperatur stark von der Kaliumkonzentration x in der KxNa1-xNbO3-Dünnschicht ab und kann durch eine Änderung von x=0,95 (stärker kompressiv verspannt) auf x=0,8 (stärker tensil verspannt) um etwa 60 K erhöht werden. Darüber hinaus ist dies die erste Studie, die experimentell beobachtete dreidimensionale Domänenanordnungen direkt mit Berechnungen aus Phasenfeldsimulationen vergleicht. / In this work, ferroelectric phase transitions in strained (K,Na)NbO3 films are studied for the first time using in situ temperature-dependent three-dimensional X-ray diffraction. The focus lies on strongly anisotropically strained thin films, which exhibit a well-ordered herringbone domain pattern with a periodic arrangement of monoclinic a1a2/MC phases at room temperature. Upon increasing temperatures, the (K,Na)NbO3 thin films undergo a ferroelectric phase transition to the orthorhombic high-temperature phase, which is characterized by a regular pattern of alternating a1/a2 stripe domains with pure lateral polarization. In-plane X-ray measurements show that the film unit cells undergo a small in-plane distortion, leading to the formation of four different unit cell variants and thus four different (super)domain variants. By comparing X-ray diffraction measurements of different Bragg reflections of films with different film thicknesses, it is possible to distinguish the specific diffraction features and assign them to the individual phases observed at the different temperatures. Using in situ temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction, it is therefore possible to reveal the details of the phase transition from the a1a2/MC herringbone to the a1/a2 stripe domain pattern. It is shown to extend over a wide temperature range and to occur in several steps. The observation of phase coexistence within the transition and a thermal hysteresis in the phase transition temperature suggests a first-order type phase transition. Moreover, the phase transition temperature strongly depends on the molar concentration of potassium x in the KxNa1-xNbO3 thin film and can be increased by about 60 K by changing x=0.95 (more compressively strained) to x=0.8 (more tensile strained). Furthermore, this is the first study to directly compare experimentally observed three-dimensional domain arrangements with calculations from phase field simulations.