Recently, a research team led by Professor Li Fei from the School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Faculty of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, in collaboration with the State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, successfully developed textured ceramics with piezoelectric properties on par with single crystals, leveraging machine learning-assisted design. Their groundbreaking research findings were published online in the prestigious journal Science, under the title "Breaking the Performance Bottleneck of Textured Piezoelectric Ceramics."

Piezoelectric materials, capable of converting between electrical and mechanical energy, are extensively utilized in various fields, including medical ultrasound imaging, underwater acoustic sonar, precision actuation, and chip cooling. With the escalating demands for device performance, there is a pressing need to enhance the overall capabilities of piezoelectric materials. Textured piezoelectric ceramics, which merge the high performance of single crystals with the cost-effectiveness, high mechanical toughness, and versatility in shaping of traditional ceramics, have emerged as a promising solution. However, their piezoelectric performance has previously fallen short of single crystals with identical compositions, primarily due to constraints such as low-piezoelectric grain boundaries, non-textured grains, and limitations on domain size imposed by grain boundaries.

To overcome these challenges, the research team refined the topological chemical synthesis method, introduced a novel microcrystalline template abundant in highly diffusive Zr ions, and constructed a high-quality dataset of relaxor ferroelectric ceramic properties. Utilizing machine learning algorithms, they predicted piezoelectric performance and Curie temperature. Armed with this model, the team incorporated polar nanoregions through rare-earth element doping and, for the first time, developed Sm-Pb(In_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-Pb(Sc_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-PbTiO₃ textured piezoelectric ceramics boasting piezoelectric properties comparable to those of single crystals.

These ceramics exhibit a remarkable piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ of 1720 pC/N, an electromechanical coupling coefficient k₃₃ of 0.93, and outstanding mechanical strength and coercive field performance. Vector accelerometers fabricated using these ceramics demonstrate significantly higher sensitivity compared to piezoelectric single-crystal and traditional PZT ceramic accelerometers, while maintaining stability and fatigue characteristics akin to those of traditional ceramic devices. This breakthrough suggests that the new textured piezoelectric ceramics hold immense potential for enhancing the performance of devices such as medical ultrasound probes, high-sensitivity sensors, and piezoelectric fans for chip cooling, opening up new avenues for technological advancement.