Combinatorial Optimization of Grain Size and Domain Morphology Boosts the Energy Storage Performance in (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-Based Dielectric Ceramics

Lead-free dielectric ceramics exhibiting excellent energy storage capacity, long service life, and good safety have been considered to have immense prospects in next-generation pulsed power capacitors. However, it is still challenging to simultaneously achieve large recoverable energy density (Wrec), high efficiency (η), and excellent charge–discharge performance. Herein, we fabricated lead-free (1 – x)(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-x(Sr0.7Bi0.1La0.1)TiO3 ((1 – x)BNT-xSBLT) dielectric ceramics, and a good balance between Wrec ∼ 4.15 J/cm3 and η ∼ 93.89% under 333 kV/cm, as well as superior charge–discharge properties (power density PD ∼ 185.42 MW/cm3, discharge energy density Wd ∼ 2.2 J/cm3, and discharge time t0.9 ∼ 53.8 ns under 250 kV/cm), was achieved in 0.6BNT–0.4SBLT ceramics. The good energy storage performance can be attributed to the synergistic contributions of significantly enhanced Eb caused by grain refinement and the large ΔP values induced by polar nanoregions (PNRs) under a high external electric field. Moreover, the 0.6BNT–0.4SBLT ceramics also present excellent temperature stability of energy storage properties (the variations of Wrec and η less than 0.45% and 0.14%, respectively) over a temperature range of 25–185 °C. These figures of merit make 0.6BNT–0.4SBLT ceramics the most promising candidate for energy storage capacitors in advanced pulse power systems.