Giant electro-strain and enhanced energy storage performance of (Y0.5Ta0.5)4+ co-doped 0.94(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0.06BaTiO3 lead-free ceramics.

0.94(Bi 0.5 Na 0.5)(Y 0.5 Ta 0.5) x Ti 1- x O 3 -0.06BaTiO 3 lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were prepared by a conventional solid-state reaction method to study their excellent electro-strain properties and energy storage characteristics systematically. All ceramics exhibited a dense surface morphology. The introduction of (Y 0.5 Ta 0.5)4+ complex ions destroyed the long-range ferroelectric order, which reduced the T F-R to the operating temperature, resulting in an easier field-induced transition between relaxor and ferroelectric phase. Therefore, for x = 0.01 component attained unipolar strain of 0.37% under 52 kV/cm, and the corresponding normalized strain d 33 * was 708 pm/V. Besides, the destruction of the ferroelectric phase also induced a pinched hysteresis loop and the maximum storage density of 1.215 J/cm3 with the efficiency of 68.7% obtained at 98 kV/cm for BNYT30 ceramics. These all demonstrated that the doping of complex ions (Y 0.5 Ta 0.5)4+ made the BNT-BT an outstanding candidate for actuators and energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]