BaTiO₃-based ceramics with high energy storage density

BaTiO₃ ceramics are difficult to withstand high electric fields, so the energy storage density is relatively low, inhabiting their applications for miniaturized and lightweight power electronic devices. To address this issue, we added Sr_0.7Bi_0.2TiO₃ (SBT) into BaTiO₃ (BT) to destroy the long-range ferroelectric domains. Ca²⁺ was introduced into BT-SBT in the form of CaTiO₃ (CT), which has the effect of inhibiting the movement of A-site defects to reduce dielectric loss and refining the grains to increase the breakdown field strength. In addition, we have increased the density and grain uniformity of ceramics by repeated rolling of the green samples through the viscous polymer processing (VPP), to further increase the breakdown electric field. The BT-SBT-CT ceramics exhibit the high recoverable energy storage density of 4.0 J·cm⁻³ under electric field of 480 kV·cm⁻¹. Its recoverable energy storage density varies by less than 8% in the temperature range of 30–150 °C, indicating good temperature stability of the energy storage performance. In this work, the energy storage performance of barium titanate-based ceramics was greatly improved by transforming ferroelectrics into relaxor ferroelectrics and VPP method, which can bring new inspiration for the research of energy storage ceramics. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].