Enhanced Energy Storage Density and Excellent Thermal Stability Under Low Electric Fields of KF-added BNT–ST-AN Relaxor Ferroelectric Ceramics Prepared by the Solid-state Combustion Technique
Abstract Homogeneous 0.722(Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3)-0.228(SrTiO3)-0.05(AgNbO3) (BNT-ST-AN) ceramics with various amounts of potassium fluoride (KF) added were prepared by the solid-state combustion technique. The ceramics presented a single perovskite phase with coexisting rhombohedral (R), cubic (C) and orthorhombic (O) phases. The amount of the R phase decreased while the percentage of the C+O phase increased when KF addition increased from 0.0 to 3.0 mol%. The smallest grain size, the highest density and maximum dielectric constant (em) were achieved with a KF addition of 1.5 mol%. Following this design composition of the ceramics, the highest recoverable energy-storage density (Wrec ~1.60 J/cm3) and η above 85.8% at a low electric field (100 kV/cm) were obtained from BNT-ST-AN with KF addition at 1.5 mol% because this composition contained a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) region and had the smallest grain size, which gave the lowest remnant polarization (Pr) and a large maximum polarization (Pm). Additionally, BNT-ST-AN with KF addition at 0.15 mol% exhibits stability over a wide range of temperatures (25–150°C) at a low electric field (100 kV/cm), which shows great potential in pulse-power system applications.
