Structure and electrical properties of 〈001〉 textured (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.9Zr0.1)O3 lead-free piezoelectric ceramics

〈001〉 textured (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.9Zr0.1)O3 (BCTZ) lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were prepared by templated-grain growth method using BaTiO3 as template. The degree of orientation and the microstructure of the ceramics with different amount of template were investigated. The electrical properties of the textured-ceramics in the optimized condition were dramatically enhanced compared with randomly-oriented BCTZ ceramics. The textured BCTZ ceramics showed high piezoelectric constants d33 = 470 pC/N and d31 = −170 pC/N, and high electromechanical coupling factors kp = 44% and k31 = 22%. In addition, the Curie point of the textured ceramics revealed an increase with the template content.