Synergistic effect of grain size and phase boundary on energy storage performance and electric properties of BCZT ceramics

Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Zr 0.9 Ti 0.1 O 3 (BCZT) ceramics with various grain sizes were fabricated through solid-state method followed by different sintering temperatures. The influences of grain size and phase structure on the electric properties and energy storage performance were systematically investigated. The remnant polarization and quasi-static piezoelectric constant of BCZT samples increase gradually as grain size increases, and the samples with the grain size of 44.37 µm exhibit excellent ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity (2 P r = 25.4 µC/cm 2 , d 33 = 513 pC/N). Although the energy storage density of BCZT samples with the grain size of 8.28–44.37 µm is relative lower, all the ceramic samples have higher energy storage efficiency (82–87.4%). There is the maximum energy storage density in phase transition temperature of tetragonal–cubic phase for all BCZT ceramics and the maximum energy storage density first increases and then decreases with the increase of grain size. But the energy storage density of BCZT ceramics near room temperature decreases with increasing of grain size. The smaller grain size is beneficial to improve the room temperature energy storage density of BCZT samples and is disadvantageous to obtaining superior ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties.