Boosting the Energy Storage Performances of Dy ₂ O ₃ -modified Pb _0.95 La _0.02 Ca _0.03 (Zr _0.6 Sn _0.4 ) _0.995 O ₃ Antiferroelectric Ceramics via the Grain Boundary Effect

Antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics exhibit significant potential for high-performance energy storage applications due to their distinctive field-induced AFE-ferroelectric (FE) phase transitions. However, the energy storage performance is often severely limited by the insufficient breakdown electric strength (BDS) caused by coarse-grained microstructures. In this work, x wt % Dy 2 O 3 -modified Pb 0.95 La 0.02 Ca 0.03 (Zr 0.6 Sn 0.4 ) 0.995 O 3 (PLCZS) AFE ceramics (D x, x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) were designed to enhance the BDS by utilizing the grain boundary effect. The BDS value increases from 580 kV·cm –1 to 750 kV·cm –1 as the Dy 2 O 3 content is raised from 0 to 0.2 wt %. The D 0.2 ceramic exhibits a recoverable energy density ( W rec ) of 18.36 J·cm –3 and an energy storage efficiency (η) of 86.39%. Moreover, the D 0.2 ceramic demonstrates outstanding cycling stability with variations in W rec and η of less than 1.0% over 10 6 cycles at 500 kV·cm –1 . It achieves a high discharge energy density ( W dis ) of 14.32 J·cm –3 and an ultrafast discharge time ( t 0.9 ) of 36 ns under 650 kV·cm –1 . This ceramic also obtains a high current density ( C D ) of 2624 A·cm –2 and a high power density ( P D ) of 879 MW·cm –3 . These outstanding results not only confirm the efficacy of Dy 2 O 3 doping in enhancing energy storage performance but also underscore the great promise of the modified PLCZS antiferroelectric ceramics for advanced pulsed power applications.