Temperature-stable Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-based ceramics with favorable low-temperature dielectric and energy storage property

In this work, (1 − x)(0.94Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃–0.06BaTiO₃)–xKTaO₃ (x = 0–0.30) ceramics are developed for dielectric capacitor applications. The introduction of KTaO₃ from x = 0 to 0.30 increases the tolerance factor t from 0.984 to 1.005 and causes the decrease of ferroelectric rhombohedral phase in the ceramics. Besides, a gradual structural change toward a higher symmetry can be detected, accompanied by the obvious domain refinement. In the aspect of electrical property, the strengthened dielectric relaxation leads to the greatly enhanced thermal stability of dielectric response. The decline in T_s from 98 to −96°C causes a significant widening of the low-temperature region with temperature-stable dielectric constant ε_r and low dielectric loss tan δ. The x = 0.30 ceramic shows a high ε_r (25°C) of 1094 with the temperature coefficient of capacitance ≤±15% over −70 to 200°C, which exceeds the X9R standard. Meanwhile, tan δ is less than 0.02 in a wide temperature range of −35 to 300°C. In addition, the ultrafine grain size of 290 nm, large bandgap of 3.22 eV, and high resistance of the x = 0.30 ceramic contribute to its electrical breakdown strength. A linear-like P–E loop with the large discharged energy density W_D ∼ 3.50 J/cm³ and high energy efficiency η ∼ 90.1% is obtained under 28 kV/mm at room temperature. The thermal stability of the energy storage performance is also satisfactory with the variation of W_D less than 15% over −40 to 200°C, and the η is higher than 85%.