Nonadiabatic direct measurement electrocaloric effect in lead-free Ba,Ca(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics

Electrocaloric effect (ECE) of lead-free Ba,Ca(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics was researched. The Ba,Ca(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics is with the characteristics of slimmer P-E hysteresis loops, and direct thermometry displays an electrocaloric effect over a wide range temperatures from room temperature to 105 °C. The temperature change ΔT increased with increasing of applied electric field and measurement temperature, and reached the maximum of ∼0.6 K at 85 °C with an applied electric field of 40 kV/cm. For comparison, indirect theoretical calculation was given by, thermodynamic equation analysis of P-E hysteresis loops with different temperature. The magnitude of indirect calculation ΔT was about 2.33 K for BCZT samples. We also compare the difference of two results. The direct measurement was carried in non-adiabatic, so the experimental data ΔT was smaller than the theoretical value. Crown Copyright © 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.