A novel Na0.5K0.5NbO3–La(Zn0.5Ti0.5)O3 ceramics with excellent dielectric properties at wide temperature range

Abstract Ceramic-based dielectrics are considered as the best candidates for high temperature capacitors because of their outstanding mechanical and electrical properties. Nevertheless, conventional barium titanate-based capacitors show narrow operating temperature ranges owing to the low tetragonal-cubic phase transition temperature. In order to increase the working temperature and relative permittivity, a novel (1- x )Na 0.5 K 0.5 NbO 3 - x La(Zn 0.5 Ti 0.5 )O 3 (NKN- x LZT) ceramics were chosen to meet the targets in this work. The NKN- x LZT ceramics with sub-micrometer grains (0.2–0.4 μm) were synthesized via a conventional solid-state sintering route. A relative permittivity ( e ’ = 1560 ± 15%) with low loss tangent over wide temperature range from 96 °C to 350 °C was obtained in the x  = 0.02 ceramics. Additionally, the crystal structure distortion and conduction behaviors of the NKN- x LZT ceramics were systematically studied. The decrease of oxygen octahedron distortion induced a weak polarization, and the high resistance (9 × 10 6 Ωcm at 400 °C) greatly suppressed the long-term migration of defective ions in the ceramics. Therefore, the low loss tangent and high permittivity were still stabilized at the high temperature. It believes that the NKN- x LZT ceramic system in this work will become one of the most promising candidates for high-temperature capacitor devices.