Influence of microstructure features on electrocaloric effect in ferroelectric ceramics

The electrocaloric effect (ECE) in the ferroelectric ceramics is determined by both the composition and the microstructure. This paper demonstrated the influences of the microstructure features on the ECE in BaTiO3 ceramics. When the sintering temperature rises, the particles are fused together, the grain size is enlarged and the pore amount decreases, so the ECE ΔTmax increases significantly. If the sintering temperature further rises to 1300 °C, the intergranular pores transform to intragranular, so the ΔT peak is enhanced but the value other than the peak is reduced. The ΔTmax lowers slightly since the amount of intragranular pores gradually reduces after a second sintering for long time. The clarification of the influences of the microstructure features is instructive for the ECE material design for practical applications.