Ultrahigh Energy‐Storage Density in Antiferroelectric Ceramics with Field‐Induced Multiphase Transitions

Abstract The excellent energy‐storage performance of ceramic capacitors, such as high‐power density, fast discharge speed, and the ability to operate over a broad temperature range, gives rise to their wide applications in different energy‐storage devices. In this work, the (Pb 0.98 La 0.02 )(Zr 0.55 Sn 0.45 ) 0.995 O 3 (PLZS) antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics are prepared via a unique rolling machine approach. The field‐induced multiphase transitions are observed in polarization–electric field (P–E) hysteresis loops. All the PLZS AFE ceramics possess high energy‐storage densities and discharge efficiency (above 80%) with different sintering temperatures. Of particular significance is that an ultrahigh recoverable energy‐storage density of 10.4 J cm ‐3 and a high discharge efficiency of 87% are achieved at 40 kV mm ‐1 for PLZS ceramic with a thickness of 0.11 mm, sintered at 1175 °C, which are by far the highest values ever reported in bulk ceramics. Moreover, the corresponding ceramics exhibit a superior discharge current density of 1640 A cm ‐2 and ultrafast discharge speed (75 ns discharge period). This great improvement in energy‐storage performance is expected to expand the practical applications of dielectric ceramics in numerous electronic devices.