Heterostrain-enabled ultrahigh electrostrain in lead-free piezoelectric

Piezoelectric materials provide high strain and large driving forces in actuators and can transform electrical energy into mechanical energy. Although they were discovered over 100 years ago, scientists are still searching for alternative lead-free piezoelectrics to reduce their environmental impact. Developing high-strain piezoelectric materials has been a long-term challenge, particularly challenging for the design of high-strain polycrystalline piezoelectrics containing no toxic lead element. In this work, we report one strategy to enhance the electrostrain via designing “heterostrain” through atomic-scale defect engineering and mesoscale domain engineering. We achieve an ultrahigh electrostrain of 2.3% at high temperature (220 °C) in lead-free polycrystalline ceramics, higher than all state-of-the-art piezoelectric materials, including lead-free and lead-based ceramics and single crystals. We demonstrate practical solutions for achieving high electrostrain in low-cost environmentally piezoelectric for various applications.