Structural and dielectric properties of sol–gel derived Ba1–xSrxTiO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) ceramics for energy storage applications

Abstract

Barium strontium titanate (Ba1–xSrxTiO3, BSTO: x = 0, 0.3 and 0.5) ceramics were prepared by sintering sol–gel derived BSTO powders at 1350 °C for 2 h. Average grain size of BSTO ceramics decreased from 15 to 2 μm with increasing Sr molar fraction. X-ray structural analysis revealed that BSTO ceramics exhibited tetragonal structure (x = 0 and 0.3) and transformed into cubic structure at high Sr molar fraction (x = 0.5) at room temperature. Dielectric constant of the BSTO ceramics was measured between −60 and 180 °C and frequency range of 1–100 kHz. Temperature transition from ferroelectric to paraelectric phase (Curie temperature: TC) decreased linearly from 125 to −30 °C as Sr molar fraction increased. The dielectric constant exhibited frequency-independent behavior in the frequency range investigated. A diffuse dielectric constant peak was evident for BSTO with Sr molar fraction of 0.5 due to the effect of fine-grained size. Polarization–electric field (P–E) at room temperature presented a well-defined hysteresis loop for BSTO (x = 0 and 0.3), indicating their ferroelectric characteristics. At a high Sr molar fraction of 0.5, the P–E loop became a linear relation, indicating a paraelectric phase. Energy storage density of BSTO with x = 0 was about 0.2 J/cm3; however, energy storage efficiency was less than 50%. After doping with Sr molar fraction of 0.5, energy storage density decreased to 0.1 J/cm3 but its energy storage efficiency significantly improved to 90%.