Lead-free (Ag,K)NbO3 materials for high-performance explosive energy conversion

Zhen Liu; Teng Lu; Fei Xue; Hengchang Nie; Ray Withers; Andrew Studer; Felipe Kremer; Narendirakumar Narayanan; Xianlin Dong; Dehong Yu; Longqing Chen; Yun Liu; Genshui Wang

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba0367

Lead-free (Ag,K)NbO₃ materials for high-performance explosive energy conversion

Sci Adv. 2020 May 20;6(21):eaba0367. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0367. eCollection 2020 May.

Authors

Zhen Liu^{1

2}, Teng Lu², Fei Xue³, Hengchang Nie¹, Ray Withers², Andrew Studer⁴, Felipe Kremer⁵, Narendirakumar Narayanan^{2

4}, Xianlin Dong^{1

6}, Dehong Yu⁴, Longqing Chen³, Yun Liu², Genshui Wang^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai 200050, China.
² Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁴ Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia.
⁵ Centre for Advanced Microscopy, Australian National University, 131 Garran Road, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai 200050, China.

Abstract

Explosive energy conversion materials with extremely rapid response times have broad and growing applications in energy, medical, defense, and mining areas. Research into the underlying mechanisms and the search for new candidate materials in this field are so limited that environment-unfriendly Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ still dominates after half a century. Here, we report the discovery of a previously undiscovered, lead-free (Ag_0.935K_0.065)NbO₃ material, which possesses a record-high energy storage density of 5.401 J/g, enabling a pulse current ~ 22 A within 1.8 microseconds. It also exhibits excellent temperature stability up to 150°C. Various in situ experimental and theoretical investigations reveal the mechanism underlying this explosive energy conversion can be attributed to a pressure-induced octahedral tilt change from a ^- a ^- c ⁺ to a ^- a ^- c ^-/a ^- a ^- c ⁺, in accordance with an irreversible pressure-driven ferroelectric-antiferroelectric phase transition. This work provides a high performance alternative to Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ and also guidance for the further development of new materials and devices for explosive energy conversion.

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