High-Performance PbZrO3-based antiferroelectric multilayer capacitors based on multiple enhancement strategy

Antiferroelectric (AFE) materials are thought to be one of the most promising candidates for energy storage application owing to their large polarization difference between maximum polarization and remanent polarization originating from unique electric field-induced phase transition, but the large polarization hysteresis leads to an inferior energy efficiency, which restricts their applications in advanced pulsed power devices. Herein, we propose a multiple enhancement strategy of composition and structural modification to solve this problem. The (Pb0.875La0.05Sr0.05)(Zr0.695Ti0.005Sn0.3)O3 (PLSZTS) antiferroelectric ceramic and corresponding multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) are fabricated. A low hysteresis is obtained via composition optimization. Moreover, multilayer ceramic constructing improves significantly breakdown strength (BDS) due to decreased thickness of dielectric layer. An ultrahigh recoverable energy density (Wdis) of 19.9 J/cm3, together with a high energy efficiency (η) of 96.4% are achieved synchronously at an electric field of 85 kV/mm. In addition, the studied MLCCs also possess outstanding discharge energy storage properties with a high discharge energy density (Wdis) of 15.4 J/cm3 and a large power density (PD) of 170.5 MW/cm3, a wide temperature range of 20–120 °C, and strong fatigue endurance after 3000 cycles. The present research results not only offer a potential candidate for high-power energy storage devices, but also, more importantly, develop a universal approach for optimizing the overall energy storage performance.