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High electrostrain in a lead-free piezoceramic from a chemopiezoelectric effect

Nature Materials volume 24, pages 565–573 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Piezoelectric materials are indispensable in electromechanical actuators, which require a large electrostrain with a fast and precise response. By designing a chemopiezoelectric effect, we developed an approach to achieve a high electrostrain of 1.9% under −3 kV mm−1, at 1 Hz, corresponding to an effective piezoelectric coefficient of >6,300 pm V−1 at room temperature in lead-free potassium sodium niobate piezoceramics. This electrostrain has satisfactory fatigue resistance and thermal stability, and low hysteresis, far outperforming existing lead-based and lead-free perovskite counterparts. From tracer diffusion, atomic optical emission spectrometry experiments, combined with machine-learning molecular dynamics and phase-field simulations, we attribute the high electrostrain to short-range hopping of oxygen vacancies near ceramic surfaces under an alternating electric field, which is supported by strain levels reaching 3.0% under the same applied field when the sample was annealed at a low oxygen partial pressure. These findings provide an additional degree of freedom for designing materials on the basis of defect engineering, which will favour not only the electrostrain of piezoelectrics but also the functional properties of a broader range of oxide-based materials.

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Fig. 1: Thickness dependence of electrostrain at room temperature.
Fig. 2: Evidence of the proposed mechanism underlying the thickness-dependent giant electrostrain.
Fig. 3: Theoretical calculation of oxygen-vacancy-induced large electrostrains in KNN ceramics.
Fig. 4: Exceptional electrostrain performance in KNN ceramics of various thicknesses.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information. Any other relevant data are also available upon request from the corresponding authors. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge helpful discussions with Z.-L. Tang at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, X. Li and Y. Gu at the BL02U2 beamline of Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility and X. Mo at the Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A portion of this work was performed on the Steady High Magnetic Field Facilities, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, CAS. K.W. acknowledges support from the Basic Science Centre Program of the NSFC (no. 52388201), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2020YFA0711700) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (no. 52032005). Y.-X.L. acknowledges support from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (nos. 52302148 and 52311530094). Z.S. and S.J.S. acknowledge support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (no. 101017709).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ze Xu, Xiaoming Shi.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Ze Xu, Yi-Xuan Liu, Hao-Cheng Thong, Yuqi Jiang, Zhao Li, Xian-Xian Cai, Hao-Feng Huang, Chen-Bo-Wen Li, Xin Zhang, Xiaowei Ren, Zhihao Dong, Xiaohui Wang, Jing-Feng Li & Ke Wang

  2. Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    Xiaoming Shi & Houbing Huang

  3. Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China

    Xiaoming Shi

  4. Research Center for Advanced Functional Ceramics, Wuzhen Laboratory, Jiaxing, China

    Yi-Xuan Liu, Fang-Zhou Yao & Wen Gong

  5. School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia

    Danyang Wang

  6. Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Zijie Sha & Stephen J. Skinner

  7. Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Zhanpeng Xu & Ming Li

  8. School of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Xinyu Jin, Peng Tan & Hao Tian

  9. Tongxiang Tsingfeng Technology Co., Ltd, Jiaxing, China

    Chaofeng Wu

  10. Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Peter Kabakov & Shujun Zhang

  11. Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Fangyuan Zhu

  12. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Condition, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China

    Feng Chen

  13. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Haozhi Sha & Rong Yu

  14. Graduate School, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Beijing, China

    Ben Xu

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Contributions

Ze Xu, Y.-X.L., S.Z. and K.W. conceived the original idea and directed the project. Ze Xu, Z.L., X.-X.C., H.-F.H. and C.W. performed the sample preparation, while Ze Xu, Y.-X.L., H.-C.T., F.-Z.Y., Zhanpeng Xu, P.K. and M.L. analysed the electrical results. X.S. and H.H. performed the phase-field simulations. Ze Xu, Y.-X.L., Y.J., Z.L., F.Z., F.C., H.S., R.Y. and B.X. conducted the structural characterization. Ze Xu, Z.S. and S.J.S. conducted the 18O tracer diffusion measurements and analysed the data. H.T., P.T. and X.J. tested the strain distribution. Ze Xu and Y.-X.L. analysed the data with the help of C.-B.-W.L., X.Z., X.R., Z.D., W.G., X.W. and J.-F.L., and K.W. supervised the overall research work. Ze Xu and Y.-X.L. wrote the manuscript. X.S., D.W., H.H., K.W. and S.Z. revised the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yi-Xuan Liu, Houbing Huang, Shujun Zhang or Ke Wang.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Method, Figs. 1–28, Tables 1–10 and Note 1.

Supplementary Data 1

Atomic coordinates of the computational models.

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Xu, Z., Shi, X., Liu, YX. et al. High electrostrain in a lead-free piezoceramic from a chemopiezoelectric effect. Nat. Mater. 24, 565–573 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02092-8

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