Fabrication and characterization of a novel carbonated 0-3 piezoelectric γ-C2S composite

Abstract 0-3 cement-based piezoelectric composites have been proposed as sensors and actuators in civil engineering for structural heath monitoring. Previous studies are focused exclusively on hydraulic binders such as ordinary Portland cement and sulfoaluminate cement. In this paper, a novel 0–3 piezoelectric composite is presented which consists of non-hydraulic gamma dicalcium silicate (γ-C2S) as the matrix and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) as the piezoelectric phase, utilizing carbonation reaction for the attainment of high mechanical strength. The effect of PZT content on the piezoelectric, dielectric and mechanical properties is investigated. When exposed to a CO2-rich environment for 2 h, the composite with 60 vol% PZT develops rapid strength to be 38.5 MPa and possesses a piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of 24.6 pC/N, a dielectric constant of 67.5 and tanδ of 0.11, which are comparable to what has been reported in other studies.