Significantly enhanced energy storage capability of BNT-based ceramics via optimized sintering aids

Development of the electronic information industry demands superior performance and affordable costs for Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC). Economical inner electrodes, the dominant trend of choice, tend to command lower sintering temperatures. Herein, a strategy, modification of Bi0.395Na0.325Sr0.245TiO3 (BNST) ceramics via sintering aids (e.g. CuO, ZnO, MnO2, and MgO), is proposed to satisfy lower sintering temperatures, which could inhibit the growth of grains, resulting in a tremendous improvement in breakdown strength (Eb). Low-temperature sintering take an advantage of reducing grain sizes with improvement in the proportion of crystal boundaries to form high potential energy barriers, giving rise to Eb and energy densities. Especially, an extremely fine average grain size ∼0.23 µm (reduction an order of magnitude, BNST ∼2.11 µm) is attained in BNST-CuO ceramics attributing to a low sintering temperature of 900 °C, which simultaneously yields a dramatically enhancement ∼380% in Eb from 120 kV/cm up to 460 kV/cm. The present work offers a generalizable avenue for designing high-performance dielectric ceramics with lower sintering temperature, which promises extensive applications in MLCC.