Electrocaloric and pyroelectric properties of 0.6Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.10Ti0.90O3 –0.4BaTi0.89Sn0.11O3 ceramics

Ferroelectric materials are gaining considerable attention for energy storage, electrocaloric and pyroelectric energy harvesting applications. In particular, Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Zr 0.10 Ti 0.90 O 3 (BCZT) and BaTi 0.89 Sn 0.11 O 3 (BTSn) ceramics are among the best-studied lead-free BaTiO 3 -based ferroelectrics with high piezoelectric and electrocaloric properties. In this work, we prepared a 0.6BCZT–0.4BTSn solid solution. The structural, energy storage, electrocaloric, and pyroelectric properties are investigated. An energy density of 61.4 mJ cm -3 with a high energy efficiency of 82.4 % at 90 °C is achieved. The electrocaloric temperature change, which is determined indirectly via the Maxwell relation, is 0.5 K at 86 °C and 25 kV cm -1 . It is stable over a wide temperature range of around 65 °C and has a coefficient of performance of 15. Moreover, a pyroelectric energy density of 124.1 mJ cm -3 is achieved. The results of this study show that the 0.6BCZT–0.4BTSn ceramics is a multifunctional material with energy storage, electrocaloric and pyroelectric properties.