Synthesis and properties of Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 modified Pb(Zr0.95Ti0.05)O3 pyroelectric ceramics

xPb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–(1−x)Pb(Zr0.95Ti0.05)O3 (PZN–PZT) pyroelectric ceramics were synthesized by a two-step solid state reaction method. The effects of the PZN content on the phase structure and electrical property of the ceramics were investigated. The results revealed that perovskite phase and PbZrO4 phase coexist in the samples with lower PZN content. The substitution of (Zn, Nb)4+ promoted the formation of rhombohedral phase and improved the ferroelectric properties of the materials. With the increase of PZN content, the amount of PbZrO4 phase decreased because of the formation of liquid phase during the sintering process, which increased the densities of ceramics and dielectric constant (εr) of the ceramics. The diffusivity parameter (γ) increased from 1.0266 to 1.3899 when PZN content increased. However, the pyroelectric coefficient (p), remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of PZN content. When x=0.075, the ceramics with the optimum performances could be obtained, with a pyroelectric coefficient of 14.2×10−8 C cm−2 K−1, voltage response figure of merit of 0.22 m2 C−1, detectivity figure of merit of 7.35×10−5 Pa−1/2, dielectric permittivity of 300, dielectric loss of 0.023 and remanent polarization of 32.45 μC cm−2.