Structural and dielectric relaxor properties of (1−x)BaTiO3–xBi(Zn1/2Zr1/2)O3 ceramics for energy storage applications

Abstract

In this paper, the (1−x)BaTiO3–xBi(Zn1/2Zr1/2)O3 (x = 0.04–0.20) solid solutions were prepared using conventional solid-state reaction method. The X-ray diffraction results showed that all samples were crystalized as the perovskite structure, and there was no secondary phase in whole compositional range. For x = 0.04, the ceramics were in tetragonal phase, and transformed to a pesudocubic phase for x ≥ 0.08 at ambient temperature. Temperature-dependent dielectric measurements indicated a crossover from ferroelectric behavior to relaxor-like characteristics. As the BZZ content increased, the polarization–electric field (P–E) hysteresis loops became slimmer, and the discharge energy density increased firstly, but dropped. For x = 0.12, the maximum discharge energy density was 0.758 J/cm3 at 100 kV/cm, and the corresponding energy efficiency was 98%, indicating that (1−x)BaTiO3–xBi(Zn1/2Zr1/2)O3 ceramics were promising candidates for energy storage applications.