The effects of compositional modifications on the antiferroelectric (AFE) to ferroelectric (FE) transition of lead lanthanum zirconate stannate titanate, (Pb_1-3x/2La_x)(Zr_1-v-zSn_vTi_z)O₃ ceramics were used to optimize this material for energy storage. The experimental results show that an increase of Sn⁴⁺ respect to Ti⁴⁺ increases the coercive field of AFE-FE transition and keeps the hysteresis at the minimal level. This increases both the energy density of material and energy efficiency relative to a linear dielectric. Another advantage of Sn⁴⁺ addition was a polarization increase at the switching field. The substitution of Zn⁴⁺ for Sn⁴⁺ at fixed Ti⁴⁺ concentration of 0.1 was, however, undesirable for energy storage applications since this decreased the forward switching field and increased the hysteresis. This lowered both the energy density of the material and energy efficiency. Finally, addition of La³⁺ was performed and slim hysteresis loops were obtained resulting in energy efficiency of 80.1%. However, the slanted hysteresis behavior with La³⁺ results in a lower value of the maximum stored energy.

Date Published: 3 April 2013
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 8689, Behavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials and Composites 2013, 868908 (3 April 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2013783

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8689:
Behavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials and Composites 2013
Nakhiah C. Goulbourne; Hani E. Naguib, Editor(s)