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Enhanced energy storage performance of silver niobate-based antiferroelectric ceramics by two-step sintering mothed

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Abstract

AgNbO3 lead-free antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics are attractive candidates for energy storage applications and power electronic systems. In this study, AgNbO3 ceramics are synthesized by single-step sintering (SSS) and two-step sintering (TSS) processes under oxygen-free atmosphere, and their energy storage performance is compared. The prepared ceramic materials show characteristic AFE double hysteresis (P–E) loop and excellent energy storage performance. Especially, the AgNbO3 ceramic materials prepared by TSS achieve a maximum recoverable storage density (Wrec) of 2.32 J/cm3 under 150 kV/cm by reducing the remnant polarization (Pr), which is 36% higher than that of the material prepared by SSS (1.7 J/cm3). Furthermore, the AgNbO3 ceramic exhibits outstanding temperature stability. Specifically, the variation in Wrec is less than 6% when the temperature increases from 30 to 120 °C. These remarkable properties are mainly attributed to the high relative density, small grain size, and excellent energy storage performance of the ceramic prepared by TSS, which extends the particle rearrangement time at low temperature and promotes the uniform grain growth at high temperature. Overall, this study can serve as a useful reference for the development of capacitors in pulsed power systems.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the Scientific Research Project of Guangdong Provincial Education Department (2022KTSCX123) and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2020B1515120097 and 2020 A1515111107). The project is also funded by the Open Project Program of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Functional Materials and Devices, Huizhou University (No. EFMD2022015M) and Key Platform Programs and Technology Innovation Team Project of Guangdong Provincial Department of Education (No. 2019GCZX002 and 2020KCXTD011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Key Laboratory for Hydrogen Energy Technologies, School of Materials Science and Hydrogen Energy, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, People’s Republic of China

    Aining You, Yanlin Chen, Jieyu Fang, Yang Ding, Min Chen & Xiucai Wang

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Functional Materials and Devices, Huizhou University, Huizhou, 516001, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Ting Wang

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  1. Aining You
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  2. Yanlin Chen
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  3. Jieyu Fang
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  4. Yang Ding
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  5. Ting Wang
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  6. Min Chen
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  7. Xiucai Wang
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Contributions

Aining You: Conceptualization, Writing—Original draft preparation. Yanlin Chen: Investigation, Data Curation. Jieyu Fang: Investigation. Yang Ding: Data Curation. Ting Wang: Resources. Min Chen: Project administration, Resources. Xiucai Wang: Project administration, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Min Chen or Xiucai Wang.

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You, A., Chen, Y., Fang, J. et al. Enhanced energy storage performance of silver niobate-based antiferroelectric ceramics by two-step sintering mothed. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 649 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12379-w

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