Enhanced energy storage properties and good stability of novel (1–x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–xCa(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 relaxor ferroelectric ceramics prepared by chemical modification

The increase in energy consumption and its collateral damage on the environment has encouraged the development of environment-friendly ceramic materials with good energy storage properties. In this work, (1–x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-xCa(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramics were synthesized by the solid-state reaction method. The 0.88Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.12Ca(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramic exhibited a high recoverable energy storage density of 8.1 J/cm3 and energy storage efficiency of 82.4% at 550 kV/cm. The introduction of Ca(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 reduced the grain size and increased the band gap, thereby enhancing the breakdown field strength of the ceramic materials. The method also resulted in good temperature stability (20–140 °C), frequency stability (1–200 Hz), and fatigue stability over 106 cycles. In addition, an ultrahigh power density of 187 MW/cm3 and a fast charge-discharge rate (t0.9 = 57.2 ns) can be obtained simultaneously. Finite element method analysis revealed that the decrease of grain size was beneficial to the increase of breakdown field strength. Therefore, the 0.88Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.12Ca(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramics resulted in high energy storage properties with good stability and were promising environment-friendly materials for advanced pulsed power systems applications.