Piezoelectricity
From Sciencemadness Wiki
 |
This article is a stub. Please help Sciencemadness Wiki by expanding it, adding pictures, and improving existing text.
|
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as (salt) crystals, certain ceramics, as well as organic/biological matter such as bone, proteins, and other compounds—in response to applied mechanical stress.
Contents
General
The piezoelectric effect results from the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and electrical states in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry. The piezoelectric effect is a reversible process: materials exhibiting the piezoelectric effect also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect, the internal generation of a mechanical strain resulting from an applied electrical field.
Piezoelectric materials
Crystalline materials
- Aluminium phosphate/Berlinite (AlPO4) – a rare phosphate mineral that is structurally identical to quartz
- Langasite (La3Ga5SiO14) – a quartz-analogous crystal
- Gallium orthophosphate (GaPO4) – a quartz-analogous crystal
- Lead titanate/macedonite (PbTiO3)
- Lithium niobate (LiNbO3)
- Lithium tantalate (LiTaO3)
- Quartz (silicon dioxide)
- Rochelle salt
- Sugar (sucrose)
- Topaz
- Tourmaline-group minerals
Ceramics
- Barium titanate (BaTiO3) – Barium titanate was the first piezoelectric ceramic discovered.
- Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) – a promising candidate for the replacement of lead-based ceramics.
- Bismuth titanate (Bi4Ti3O12)
- Ba2NaNb5O5
- Pb2KNb5O15
- Lead zirconate titanate (Pb[ZrxTi1-x]O3 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 1) – more commonly known as PZT, the most common piezoelectric ceramic in use today.
- Potassium niobate (KNbO3)
- Sodium niobate (NaNbO3)
- Sodium bismuth titanate (NaBi(TiO3)2)
- Sodium tungstate (Na2WO3)
- Zinc oxide (ZnO) – Wurtzite structure. While single crystals of ZnO are piezoelectric and pyroelectric, polycrystalline (ceramic) ZnO with randomly oriented grains exhibits neither piezoelectric nor pyroelectric effect.
Other
- DNA, viral proteins, aminoacids (β-glycine)
- Group III–V and II–VI semiconductors (AlN, GaN, InN, etc.)
- Organic polymers (polyvinylidene fluoride, etc.)
