Enhanced relaxor behavior and high energy storage efficiency in niobium substituted (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 ceramics

Abstract The microstructure, dielectric properties, relaxor behavior, and energy storage efficiency of un-substituted and niobium (Nb) substituted (Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 )(Zr 0.1 Ti 0.9 ) 1-x Nb x O 3 (for x = 0, 0.02 and 0.05) samples prepared by the solid-state reaction method has been studied in detail. All the samples exhibited perovskite structure with no trace of impurity. Composition-dependent phase transition was also observed on the addition of Niobium. At room temperature, the co-existence of rhombohedral and tetragonal phases is observed in the unsubstituted samples. As the composition changes from x = 0.02 to x = 0.05, a structural change from tetragonal to cubic is observed. A remarkable reduction in grain size, from 90 μ m (for x = 0) to 1.21 μ m for (x = 0.05), is observed with the addition of Niobium. This result suggests that Niobium acts as a grain growth inhibiter in barium calcium zirconium titanate (BCZT) ceramics. The effect of Niobium on transition temperature is studied from the temperature-dependent dielectric permittivity graph. It was clear that the transition temperature shifted to a lower temperature region, and for x = 0.05, at a very low temperature (−23 °C/250 K) the tetragonal to cubic transition was observed. At x = 0.05, the temperature-dependent dielectric permittivity showed a broadened curve, indicating a diffuse phase transition. The diffuse phase transition in Nb substituted samples is explained by Uchino and Nomura modified Curie Weiss law. Moreover, the observations on temperature-dependent dielectric permittivity measurements at various frequencies suggest that the substitution of Nb 5+ induces relaxor behavior. The energy storage efficiency of unsubstituted and Nb substituted samples was calculated from the polarization versus electric field graph. A high storage efficiency of 84% was obtained for the Nb substituted sample (x = 0.05) at 12 kV cm −1 . Enhanced relaxor behavior and increased storage efficiency were observed in (Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 )(Zr 0.1 Ti 0.9 ) 1-x Nb x O 3 at x = 0.05. Thus we suggest that these are promising materials for energy storage applications.