Enhanced energy storage properties in Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 ceramics with glass additives

Abstract

The Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) ceramics added with Bi2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glass were synthesized by the sol-gel method, and the effect on their microstructural, dielectric, energy storage properties has been discussed. The SEM results demonstrate that the average grain size decreases obviously with reducing glass additive, which is enriched at the grain boundary. Owing to the addition of glass additive, sintering temperature decreases significantly. Moreover, the glass additives broaden the dielectric peak and the Curie temperature shifts toward lower temperature. The ceramic with glass additive shows better impedance properties than that of pure BCZT ceramics. In addition, the coercive field and remnant polarization of hysteresis loop were greatly decreased by introducing glass additives in BCZT ceramics. Notably, the sample with 5% glass additive shows the highest energy storage density (2.12 J/cm3) and the largest storage efficiency (90.5%) at 330 kV/cm electric field. These findings provide a potential pathway to enhance energy storage properties of BCZT ceramics in order to promote its energy storage application in practice.