Perforated pzt-polymer composites for piezoelectric transducer applications

Abstract

Composites of PZT and polymer with 3-1 and 3-2 connectivity patterns have been fabricated by drilling holes in sintered PZT blocks and filling the holes with epoxy. The influence of hole size and volume fraction PZT on the hydrostatic properties of the composite was evaluated. By decoupling the piezoelectric [dbar]₃₃ and [dbar]₃₁ coefficients in the composite, the hydrostatic coefficients are greatly enhanced. On samples optimized for hydrophone performance, the dielectric constants of 3-1 and 3-2 composites are 600 and 300 respectively. The piezoelectric coefficients [dbar]_h, [gbar]_h, and [dbar]_hd_h for 3-1 composites are 230 (pCN⁻¹), 34 (x10⁻³ VmN⁻¹), and 7800 (10⁻¹⁵ m²N⁻¹) respectively, and the corresponding values for 3-2 composites are 372 (pCN⁻¹), 123 (10⁻³ VmN⁻¹), and 45000 (10⁻¹⁵ m²N⁻¹).