Enhancing the dielectric relaxor behavior and energy storage properties of 0.6Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3–0.4(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 ceramics through the incorporation of paraelectric SrTiO3

• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-019-02299-5
• Publication Date: 2019-10-05T14:09:31Z
• Authors: A. R. Jayakrishnan; Kevin V. Alex; K. Kamakshi; J. P. B. Silva; K. C. Sekhar; M. J. M. Gomes
• Keywords: Ferroelectric ceramics

Recently, relaxor ferroelectric materials have been attracting considerable attention as energy storage capacitors due to their potential applications in pulsed power systems. In this work, lead-free (1−x)[0.6Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3–0.4(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3]–xSrTiO3 [(1−x)BZCT–xSTO] relaxor ceramics have been synthesized and their relaxor behavior is modulated via STO doping content. The incorporation of STO weakens the ferroelectric long-range order in BZCT, which favors the relaxor behavior, as experimentally proved by temperature dependent dielectric spectroscopy and polarization–electric field studies. The compositional dependence of energy storage properties in (1−x)BZCT–xSTO ceramics gave the optimum value at x = 0.15. Further, 0.85BZCT–0.15STO ceramics show the highest energy storage performance with a recoverable energy density of 0.987 J/cm3, efficiency of 84%, and high power density of 1.93 × 105 W/cm3 at an electric field of 108 kV/cm. Our ceramics show superior performance compared to previously reported values in BZCT based lead-free ceramics. The results reported here demonstrate that (1−x) BZCT–xSTO ceramics are potential candidates for energy storage capacitor applications.