Enhancing comprehensive energy storage properties in Pb-free relaxor AFE/FE system via heterogeneous structure tuning and defect engineering

Abstract

Multi-phase NaNbO3 (NN) exhibits high adjustability on the ordering of both polarization and oxygen octahedral tilt, becoming a perfect carrier to design heterogeneous structure for boosting comprehensive energy storage properties. To balance the energy storage density and efficiency, the coexistence of the relaxor antiferroelectric (AFE) with high polarization capability and the relaxor ferroelectrics (RFE) with high efficiency is designed in this work by introducing Sr0.7Bi0.2□0.1Ti0.75Ta0.2□0.05O3 (SBTT) into NaNbO3-BiFeO3. As a result, an outstanding capacitive energy density (Wrec) of 12.25 J cm−3 with a high η of 83 % can be achieved in NN-BF-SBTT ceramic, which can be identified as a novel heterogeneous coexisting structure with the crossover of high polarization capability in relaxor AFE and high efficiency in RFE in terms of high-resolution TEM. Furthermore, grain refinement and the dense structure inhibit the leak current, suppress the concentration of oxygen vacancy defects and raise the activation energy (Ea), thus enhancing the EB. These excellent energy storage properties overcome the trade-offs between the two sets of parameters (Wrec-η, ΔP-EB), offering a refreshing strategy for the development of high-performance ceramic capacitors.