Fabrication and characterization of metal core piezoelectric fibres by dip coating process

Metal core piezoelectric fibres (MCPFs) show strong potential for structural actuator applications. Unfortunately the development of such fibres is problematic because of their fabrication difficulties. In order to obtain the best properties, both aspect ratio and piezoceramic metal core compatibility have to be considered. For those reasons, fabrication of such fibres by a multi-dip-coating process has been investigated on platinum wires. The multi-coating process is shown to be more versatile and allows to control the aspect ratio. It is shown that decreasing slurry temperature during the dip process is a suitable way to reduce the number of coating steps in order to achieve high aspect ratio. After sintering, coatings exhibit the same behaviour as bulk ceramics in terms of microstructure, crystallography and ferroelectric loops. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.