High energy storage performance for flexible PbZrO3 thin films by seed layer engineering

Antiferroelectric film capacitors have attracted increasing attention due to their excellent energy storage properties. In this work, PbZrO3 (PZO) antiferroelectric films have been prepared on the flexible fluorphlogopite (Mica) and rigid Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates with a seed layer of LaNiO3 (LNO) layer by sol-gel process. The microstructure and energy storage properties of the films have been systematically studied. The results show that the Mica-Pt-LNO-PZO (M-LNO-PZO) thin film has an improved energy storage density (Wrec) of 16.6 J/cm3 with a charge and discharge efficiency (η) of 50.4%. Furthermore, the flexible thin films exhibit good stability under a wide working temperature range of 25–140 °C and an electric fatigue endurance of 107 cycles. Besides, the capacitive films can endure a bending radius of 4 mm and 104 bending cycles (@ r = 4 mm) with almost unchanged in the energy storage properties. The excellent energy storage properties endow inorganic thin films with great potential in flexible electronic devices.