Enhancement of dielectric properties and energy storage performance in 3Y‐TZP ceramics with BaTiO ₃ additives

Abstract With the fast charge‐discharge speed and ultrahigh power density, electrostatic energy storage materials offer great potential in the applications for pulsed power systems. As a very important member of structural ceramics, 3Y‐TZP (3 mol% Y ₂ O ₃ doped tetragonal zirconia polycrystals) has shown extraordinary mechanical properties. However, the research on their energy storage performance is still lacking. Herein, a ferroelectric phase, BaTiO ₃ (BT), was introduced and demonstrated to improve the dielectric properties and energy storage performance of 3Y‐TZP ceramic matrix via the conventional solid‐state reaction method. With increasing the BT content from 0 to 15 mol%, the permittivity of the composite ceramics could be effectively increased from 40.2 to 64.1 measured at 1 kHz. Simultaneously, the dielectric loss could be effectively decreased by depressing the response of charged defects, which was further interpreted by the thermally stimulated depolarization current technique. Meanwhile, the breakdown strength showed a typical increase‐then‐decrease trend with increasing BT content, and reached their maximum values when doped with 7 mol% BT. Together with the enhancement of dielectric properties, the 7 mol% BT‐doped 3Y‐TZP ceramics exhibited a maximum energy storage density of 0.42 J/cm ³ , which was approximately 150% larger than that of the pure 3Y‐TZP ceramics.