Thickness dependence of the poling and current–voltage characteristics of paint films made up of lead zirconate titanate ceramic powder and epoxy resin

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Abstract
A specially prepared paint made up of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic powder and epoxy resin was coated on an aluminum plate and was cured at room temperature, thus forming the paint film of 25–300 μm thickness with a PZT volume fraction of 53%. The paint film was then poled at room temperature, and the poling behavior was determined by measuring the piezoelectric activity as a function of poling field. The poling behavior shows that the piezoelectric activity obtained at a given poling field increases with an increase in the film thickness from 25 to 300 μm. The current–voltage characteristic of the paint film, on the other hand, shows that the increase in the film thickness leads not only to an increase in the magnitude of the current density at a given electric field but also to an increase in the critical electric field at which the transition from the ohmic to space‐charge‐limited conduction takes place. This fact indicates that the amount of the space charge of electrons injected into the paint film decreases as the film thickness increases. Furthermore, comparison of the current–voltage characteristic of the paint film with that of a pure epoxy film reveals that the space charge is accumulated largely at the interface between the PZT and epoxy phases in the paint film. On the basis of this finding, a model is developed for the poling behavior of the paint film by taking into account a possible effect of the space‐charge accumulation and a broad distribution of the electric field in the PZT phase. This model is shown to give an excellent fit to the experimental data of the piezoelectric activity obtained here as a function of poling field and film thickness.

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