Structure of the self-organized trirelaxor-antiferroelectric nanocomposite with nanoscale phase separation.

Researchers from Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) proposed an innovative solution to address the energy storage performance challenges of room-temperature-optimized materials, which significantly degrade under high-temperature conditions, limiting their reliability in devices with operational temperature rises or high-temperature environments.

By introducing antiferroelectric inducers (Bi³⁺, Zn²⁺, Nb⁵⁺) into tricritical ferroelectric (Ba,Sr)(Ti,Sn)O₃ and controlling sintering processes to locally enrich these additives, they developed a self-organized trirelaxor-antiferroelectric nanocomposite with nanoscale phase separation.

This design creates coherent interfaces that induce deep charge traps, overcoming defect effects from discontinuous interfaces in traditional nanodielectrics. The resulting system achieves both high polarization intensity (via wide-temperature-range trirelaxor phase transitions) and enhanced breakdown strength under elevated temperatures.

The optimized trirelaxor-antiferroelectric nanocomposite ceramic (1-x)(Ba,Sr)(Ti,Sn)O₃-xBi₁.₅ZnNb₁.₅O₇ exhibits exceptional energy storage density (8.5 J/cm³), efficiency (94.5%), and thermal stability.

With a breakdown field strength of 690 kV/cm and polarization intensity of 27.5 μC/cm², the material retains >4.85 J/cm³ energy density and >90% efficiency even at 200 C. This breakthrough provides a novel strategy for developing next-generation dielectric ceramics with high energy storage performance and temperature resilience.

Published in Advanced Materials under the title Superior Energy Storage Performance in a Self-organized Trirelaxor-antiferroelectric Nanocomposite over a Wide Temperature Range, this work marks a significant advancement in high-temperature dielectric materials.