Achieving Ultrahigh Energy Storage Density of La and Ta Codoped AgNbO 3 Ceramics by Optimizing the Field-Induced Phase Transitions.

Energy storage capacitors are extensively used in pulsed power devices because of fast charge/discharge rates and high power density. However, the low energy storage density and efficiency of dielectric capacitors limit their further commercialization in modern energy storage applications. Lead-free AgNbO 3 -based antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics are considered to be one of the most promising environmentally friendly materials for dielectric capacitors because of their characteristic double polarization-electric field hysteresis loops with small remanent polarization and large maximum polarization. An enhancement of these characteristics allows achieving a synergistic improvement of both the energy storage density and efficiency of the antiferroelectric materials. This work reports on a feasible codoping strategy enabling the preparation of AgNbO 3 -based ceramics with high energy storage performance. An introduction of La 3+ and Ta 5+ ions into the AgNbO 3 perovskite lattice was found to increase the structural stability of the antiferroelectric phase at the expense of a reduction of local polar regions, resulting in the shifting of the electric field-induced antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition toward higher fields. An ultrahigh recoverable energy storage density of 6.73 J/cm 3 and high energy storage efficiency of 74.1% are obtained for the Ag 0.94 La 0.02 Nb 0.8 Ta 0.2 O 3 ceramic subjected to a unipolar electric field of 540 kV/cm. These values represent the best energy performance in reported lead-free ceramics so far. Hence, the La 3+ /Ta 5+ codoping has been shown to be a good route to improve the energy storage properties of AgNbO 3 ceramics.