Novel BaTiO3-Based, Ag/Pd-Compatible Lead-Free Relaxors with Superior Energy Storage Performance

Huijing Yang; Zhilun Lu; Linhao Li; Weichao Bao; Hongfen Ji; Jinglei Li; Antonio Feteira; Fangfang Xu; Yong Zhang; Huajun Sun; Zhichao Huang; Weichao Lou; Kaixin Song; Shikuan Sun; Ge Wang; Dawei Wang; Ian M Reaney

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c13057

Novel BaTiO₃-Based, Ag/Pd-Compatible Lead-Free Relaxors with Superior Energy Storage Performance

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Sep 30;12(39):43942-43949. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c13057. Epub 2020 Sep 21.

Authors

Huijing Yang^{1

2}, Zhilun Lu^{1

3}, Linhao Li¹, Weichao Bao⁴, Hongfen Ji^{1

5}, Jinglei Li⁶, Antonio Feteira⁷, Fangfang Xu⁴, Yong Zhang⁸, Huajun Sun⁸, Zhichao Huang^{7

9}, Weichao Lou^{7

9}, Kaixin Song⁹, Shikuan Sun¹, Ge Wang¹, Dawei Wang¹, Ian M Reaney¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, U.K.
² Department of Physics, Tangshan Normal University, Tangshan 063000, China.
³ The Henry Royce Institute, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Sheffield S1 3JD, U.K.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Shanghai 200050, China.
⁵ Laboratory of Thin Film Techniques and Optical Test, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an 710032, China.
⁶ Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
⁷ Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, U.K.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
⁹ College of Electronics Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China.

Abstract

Ceramic dielectrics are reported with superior energy storage performance for applications, such as power electronics in electrical vehicles. A recoverable energy density (W_rec) of ∼4.55 J cm^-3 with η ∼ 90% is achieved in lead-free relaxor BaTiO₃-0.06Bi_2/3(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ ceramics at ∼520 kV cm^-1. These ceramics may be co-fired with Ag/Pd, which constitutes a major step forward toward their potential use in the fabrication of commercial multilayer ceramic capacitors. Compared to stoichiometric Bi(Mg_2/3Nb_1/3)O₃-doped BaTiO₃ (BT), A-site deficient Bi_2/3(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ reduces the electrical heterogeneity of BT. Bulk conductivity differs from the grain boundary only by 1 order of magnitude which, coupled with a smaller volume fraction of conducting cores due to enhanced diffusion of the dopant via A-site vacancies in the A-site sublattice, results in higher breakdown strength under an electric field. This strategy can be employed to develop new dielectrics with improved energy storage performance.

Keywords: BaTiO3; capacitors; ceramics; dielectric; energy storage; lead-free.