Erbium-doped (Pb0.9-Er0.01-Zr0.09) and (Pb0.9-Er0.01-Zr0.045-Ti0.045) nano-crystalline films and nano-rods ceramic synthesis by sol–gel technique for energy-storage application

The development of dielectric constant materials for energy storage applications is in high demand. Lead zirconate and lead zirconate titanate doping with erbium thin films and bulk-based devices with variant dielectric constant were created in this work. Pb(0.9)-Er0.01Zr(0.09) (PEZ) and Pb0.9-Er0.01-Zr0.045-Ti0.045 (PEZT) thin films were produced on a glass substrate using a sol-gel doctor blade technique at low temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron diffraction (ED) were used to examine the structure of the produced nanocrystals. PEZ and PEZT films had nanocrystals that were 9.5 nm and 15 nm in size, respectively, whereas PEZ and PEZT bulk nano-rods had 455 ± 5 nm in length and 45 ± 1 nm in diameter. The TEM and XRD results were found to be completely consistent in terms of particle size. Ferroelectric properties and dielectric characteristics were found to be frequency dependent. Dielectric experiments revealed that the dielectric constant was decreasing for bulk samples compared to film samples. The energy-storage efficiency of PEZ films was roughly 66.01%, and 67.8% for PEZT. The residual polarization of the Er-doped PEZ and PEZT films was the highest, reaching 36.25 μC/cm2 and 69.79 μC/cm2, respectively, and the coercive fields were 43 kV/cm and 45.43 kV/cm, respectively. On the other hand, PEZ and PEZT bulk samples had residual polarizations of 27.15 μC/cm2 and 37.29 μC/cm2, respectively, while having coercive fields of 32.3 kV/cm and 39.3 kV/cm, respectively. It was found that (PEZ) and (PEZT) samples may have potential use in energy storage applications.