Emergence of relaxor behavior along with enhancement in energy storage performance in light rare-earth doped Ba0.90Ca0.10Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 ceramics

Abstract Nano-sized light rare-earth (La, Pr, Nd, and Sm) doped Ba0.90Ca0.10Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 ceramics were synthesized to enhance the energy storage performance. The Rietveld study of bare and doped samples has shown tetragonal crystal symmetry and a single-phase perovskite structure. The rare-earth addition in Ba0.90Ca0.10Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 has resulted in a remarkable change in the microstructure of the doped samples. The addition of Nd in Ba0.90Ca0.10Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 lattice has resulted in optimum grain size and density among the five compositions. As a result of improvement in morphological characteristics in the Nd-doped sample, the dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric characteristics were significantly enhanced. The Nd-doped sample has shown a relaxor behavior with a maximum dielectric constant of 10788 combined with a high saturation polarization of 41.88 μC/cm2. Further, the material has shown optimum electromechanical behavior with excellent aging characteristics. The obtained properties of Nd-doped Ba0.90Ca0.10Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 sample justifies its potential application in multi-layer energy storage capacitors.