Processing, Structural and Electrical Properties of Textured Potassium Strontium Niobate (Ksr2Nb5O15) Piezoceramic Fibers

Highly [00 textured KSr2Nb5O15 (KSN) ceramic fibers were fabricated by a combination of novel alginate gelation method and templated grain growth using acicular KSr2Nb5O15 template particles. Fibers were drawn from alginate based slurries without or with 25 and 100wt% KSN template particles. A texture fraction of 0.90 was obtained in the case of 25 wt% and a single crystal like texture was obtained in the case of 100wt%. Piezocomposites with 1-3 connectivity were prepared from the KSN fibers and their electrical and electromechanical properties were investigated. Dielectric constant of 140, piezoelectric charge coefficient of 45 pC/N, remnant polarization of 16.6 μC/cm2 and electric field induced strain of up to 0.035% were obtained from piezocomposites with textured fibers.