Broad-high operating temperature range and enhanced energy storage performances in lead-free ferroelectrics

Weichen Zhao; Diming Xu; Da Li; Max Avdeev; Hongmei Jing; Mengkang Xu; Yan Guo; Dier Shi; Tao Zhou; Wenfeng Liu; Dong Wang; Di Zhou

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-41494-1

Broad-high operating temperature range and enhanced energy storage performances in lead-free ferroelectrics

Nat Commun. 2023 Sep 15;14(1):5725. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41494-1.

Authors

Weichen Zhao¹, Diming Xu², Da Li¹, Max Avdeev³, Hongmei Jing⁴, Mengkang Xu⁵, Yan Guo¹, Dier Shi⁶, Tao Zhou⁷, Wenfeng Liu⁸, Dong Wang⁹, Di Zhou¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Electronic Materials Research Laboratory & Multifunctional Materials and Structures, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education & International Center for Dielectric Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
² Electronic Materials Research Laboratory & Multifunctional Materials and Structures, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education & International Center for Dielectric Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. diming.xu@xjtu.edu.cn.
³ Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, Lucas Heights, 2234, NSW, Australia.
⁴ School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, 710062, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, 310027, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
⁷ School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, 310018, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
⁹ Frontier Institute of Science and Technology and State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. wang_dong1223@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Electronic Materials Research Laboratory & Multifunctional Materials and Structures, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education & International Center for Dielectric Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. zhoudi1220@gmail.com.

Abstract

The immense potential of lead-free dielectric capacitors in advanced electronic components and cutting-edge pulsed power systems has driven enormous investigations and evolutions heretofore. One of the significant challenges in lead-free dielectric ceramics for energy-storage applications is to optimize their comprehensive characteristics synergistically. Herein, guided by phase-field simulations along with rational composition-structure design, we conceive and fabricate lead-free Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃-Bi_0.5K_0.5TiO₃-Sr(Sc_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃ ternary solid-solution ceramics to establish an equitable system considering energy-storage performance, working temperature performance, and structural evolution. A giant W_rec of 9.22 J cm^-3 and an ultra-high ƞ ~ 96.3% are realized in the BNKT-20SSN ceramic by the adopted repeated rolling processing method. The state-of-the-art temperature (W_rec ≈ 8.46 ± 0.35 J cm^-3, ƞ ≈ 96.4 ± 1.4%, 25-160 °C) and frequency stability performances at 500 kV cm^-1 are simultaneously achieved. This work demonstrates remarkable advances in the overall energy storage performance of lead-free bulk ceramics and inspires further attempts to achieve high-temperature energy storage properties.