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Multi-element B-site substituted perovskite ferroelectrics exhibit enhanced electrocaloric effect

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Abstract

Electrocaloric (EC) refrigeration holds the promise to achieve next-generation refrigeration technology that can be efficiently powered by electricity. BaTiO3 (BT)-based ferroelectric materials are attractive owing to their environmentally benign compositions, large polarization, and existing manufacturing method for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), which have stimulated intensive research efforts on these materials. Here, we report an enhanced electrocaloric effect (ECE) and the refrigeration capacity of multi-element B-site substituted BT-based ceramics. The compositions of the proposed Ba(HfxSnxZry)-Ti1−2x−yO3 (BHSZT) ceramics were selected by fine-tuning each substituent against Titanium ions Ti4+, aiming to their respective morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). The BHSZT exhibited an ECE that is greater than that of the single-element substituted BaTiO3 ceramics by at least 50%, reaching an adiabatic temperature change of above 1.7 K under 40 kV/cm. Meanwhile, the operating temperature window of the BHSZT ceramics is observed to cover the room temperature, which is a critical feature that allows the device implementation in our daily life. The multi-element substitution improved the overall ECE performances, providing a high degree of freedom for polar reorientation and hence the large polar entropy that could be utilized by the external electric field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Research Centre, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    FeiHong Du, ZhiWu Song, DongLin Han, Qiang Li, ShanYu Zheng, JiaHe Shen & XiaoShi Qian

  2. Zhejiang Research Institute of Chemical Industry, Hangzhou, 310023, China

    YuTao Xu

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  1. FeiHong Du
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  2. ZhiWu Song
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Correspondence to XiaoShi Qian.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2020YFA0711500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52076127), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant Nos. 20ZR1471700, 22JC1401800). QIAN XiaoShi was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration (Grant No. MSVZD202211), the Oceanic Interdisciplinary Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Grant No. SL2020MS009), the Prospective Research Program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Grant No. 19X160010008), the Changzhou Leading Talents Project, and the Student Innovation Center and the Instrumental Analysis Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

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The supporting information is available online at tech.scichina.com and link.springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Du, F., Song, Z., Xu, Y. et al. Multi-element B-site substituted perovskite ferroelectrics exhibit enhanced electrocaloric effect. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 66, 1119–1128 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-022-2282-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-022-2282-4

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