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Enhanced electrocaloric effect in compositional driven potassium sodium niobate‐based relaxor ferroelectrics

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Abstract

Lead‐free ferroelectric electrocaloric ceramics that could convert electrical energy into heat are the promising candidate for environment‐friendly cooling devices. For refrigeration devices, a large temperature change (ΔT) and good temperature stability are required, which are highly related to the phase structure and the applied electric field. In this work, a diffused ferroelectric–paraelectric (FP) phase transition is formed in (K, Na)NbO3 (KNN) by using appropriate composition engineering. The relaxor ferroelectrics in this work present both a large ΔT of 1.24 K and a high ΔT/ΔE of 0.19 K mm/kV. In addition, a wide temperature span exceeds 55 °C at the high electrocaloric effect (ECE) criterion (ΔT ≥ 0.5 K) could also be observed. This work not only opens a new strategy for obtaining high‐performance ceramics for refrigeration devices but also extends the application area of the KNN‐based lead‐free ferroelectrics from sensors, actuators and energy harvesting to solid‐state cooling applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the supports of the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC No. 51722208).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science, Sichuan University, 610065, Chengdu, China

    Nan Zhang, Ting Zheng, Chunlin Zhao, Xiaowei Wei & Jiagang Wu

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  1. Nan Zhang
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Correspondence to Jiagang Wu.

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Zhang, N., Zheng, T., Zhao, C. et al. Enhanced electrocaloric effect in compositional driven potassium sodium niobate‐based relaxor ferroelectrics. Journal of Materials Research 36, 1142–1152 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-020-00081-6

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