Giant Field‐Induced Strain with Low Hysteresis and Boosted Energy Storage Performance under Low Electric Field in (Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃‐Based Grain Orientation‐Controlled Ceramics

Abstract

Lead‐free dielectrics with both excellent strain behavior and superior energy‐storage feature are crucial toward providing desired performance for smart electrical devices, especially under harsh environmental conditions. Herein, it is demonstrated that giant strain response of ≈0.51% with small hysteresis of ≈29% and large recoverable energy density (≈1.6 J cm−3) under low electric field (120 kV cm−1), together with excellent stabilities against temperature, frequency, and cycling, can be simultaneously achieved in oriented (with 79.4% 〈00l〉 texture) (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3–BaTiO3–NaNbO3 (BNT–BT–NN) ceramics through integrating crystallographic texturing and domain engineering. Besides, a fast discharge rate of <0.1 µs along with good thermal endurance in a wide temperature range can also be acquired. It is uncovered by piezoelectric force microscopy measurements that the formation of oriented microstructure greatly promotes the domain switching and mobility, producing the considerably easy ergodic relaxor to ferroelectric phase transition with concurrently improved strain and energy storage properties in grain orientation controlled BNT–BT–NN ceramics. This study offers a feasible and propagable guidance, i.e., crystallographic texturing and domain engineering, to develop new lead‐free dielectrics for both actuators and capacitors.

Simultaneously enhanced energy density and discharge efficiency of (Na0.5Bi0.5)0.7Sr0.3TiO3-La1/3(Ta0.5Nb0.5)O3 lead-free energy storage ceramics via grain inhibition and dielectric peak flattening engineering

“…However, a high electric field usually demands severe reliability of the capacitors and will cause large power consumption, which greatly limits the practicability. 6,7 The inferior energy storage density (W < 2 J cm −3 ) and unsatisfactory efficiency (η < 90%) under low electric fields have become bottlenecks to the commercialization of lead-free ceramics. 8,9 Therefore, developing novel ceramics with excellent W rec and η simultaneously at low electric fields is essential and valuable for practical applications of lead-free ceramic materials.…”

Simultaneously Realizing Superior Energy Storage Properties and Outstanding Charge–Discharge Performances in Tungsten Bronze-Based Ceramic for Capacitor Applications

“…The superiority of ultrashort charge–discharge times and large power density has led to many applications of electrostatic capacitors including electromagnetic pulse weapons and hybrid electric vehicles . Among electrostatic capacitor materials, dielectric ceramics have drawn growing attention since they exhibit stable operating performance under various harsh conditions. , Nevertheless, compared with batteries and electrochemical capacitors, the relatively low energy storage density limits the wide use of dielectric ceramics. − Furthermore, for the practical application of dielectric ceramics, large energy storage density, high efficiency, excellent thermal stability, and cycling stability must be achieved simultaneously.…”

Polymer‐/Ceramic‐based Dielectric Composites for Energy Storage and Conversion

“…[ 187 ] Although promising developments are made in NBT‐based RE–FE composite ceramics, these materials still face a problem of increased hysteresis upon cooling (Figure 11b,c). The hysteresis increase at low temperatures is related to intrinsically cooling‐driven transition from the RE‐to‐FE state, which also explains the temperature‐sensitive hysteresis of the PMN and NBT‐based ceramic materials, [ 188,189 ] as displayed in Figure 11c. To solve this critical issue of intrinsic incompatibility between broad temperature window and low hysteresis, a re‐entrant RE–FE composite (RRFC) (Ba 0.925 Bi 0.05 )(Ti 1− x /100 Sn x /100 )O 3 (later, simply BT‐5Bi‐ x Sn) system was reported by introducing a sufficient disorder to develop a re‐entrant relaxor state.…”