Boosting Energy Storage Performance of Lead‐Free Ceramics via Layered Structure Optimization Strategy

TLDR

Lead‑free ceramics are promising high‑power, stable dielectrics for energy storage, yet most suffer from low breakdown strength or polarization, limiting energy density and efficiency. The study designs and fabricates lead‑free ceramics with a layered structure to address this limitation. Layered structure distribution was optimized to achieve high polarization and electric field, yielding ultrahigh recoverable energy density (~7 J cm⁻³) and ~95 % efficiency. The optimized layered ceramics maintained high energy storage density (~7 J cm⁻³) and ~95 % efficiency across 1–100 Hz, 30–160 °C, and up to 10⁴ cycles, with discharge energy density of 4.52 J cm⁻³ and power density of 405.5 MW cm⁻³, demonstrating the promise of the design strategy.

Abstract

Abstract Owing to the current global scenario of environmental pollution and the energy crisis, the development of new dielectrics using lead‐free ceramics for application in advanced electronic and energy storage systems is essential because of the high power density and excellent stability of such ceramics. Unfortunately, most of them have low breakdown strength and/or low maximum polarization, resulting in low energy density and efficiency. To overcome this limitation here, lead‐free ceramics comprising a layered structure are designed and fabricated. By optimizing the distribution of the layered structure, a large maximum polarization and high applied electric field (>500 kV cm −1 ) can be achieved; these result in an ultrahigh recoverable energy storage density (≈7 J cm −3 ) and near ideal energy storage efficiency (≈95%). Furthermore, the energy storage performance without obvious deterioration over a broad range of operating frequencies (1–100 Hz), working temperatures (30–160 °C), and fatigue cycles (1–10 4 ). In addition, the prepared ceramics exhibit extremely high discharge energy density (4.52 J cm −3 ) and power density (405.50 MW cm −3 ). Here, the results demonstrate that the strategy of layered structure design and optimization is promising for enhancing the energy storage performance of lead‐free ceramics.