High-energy density of Pb0.97La0.02(Zr0.50Sn0.45Ti0.05)O3 antiferroelectric ceramics prepared by sol-gel method with low-cost dibutyltin oxide

Lead lanthanum zirconate stannate titanate (PbLa(ZrSnTi)O-3) antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics are widely used in dielectric capacitors due to their superior energy-storage capacity. Generally, these ceramics can be synthesized by solid-state reaction and sol-gel methods. Ceramics prepared using the sol-gel method have a purer phase than those prepared using the solid-state reaction method because the sol-gel method can avoid the segregation of Sn. However, because the commonly used raw material tin acetate is very expensive, the preparation of PbLa(ZrSnTi)O-3 AFE ceramics via the sol-gel method is not cost-effective, which prevents the use of sol-gel method for manufacturing PbLa(ZrSnTi)O-3 in a large scale. In this work, low-cost dibutyltin oxide instead of expensive tin acetate is used to synthesize Pb0.97La0.02(Zr0.50Sn0.45Ti0.05)O-3 (PLZST) nanopowders, and single-phase powders with a perovskite structure and average grain size of 200nm are obtained at a calcination temperature of 580 degrees C. In addition, dense PLZST AFE ceramics with a pure perovskite structure are obtained by sintering the PLZST nanopowders at temperatures as low as 1100 degrees C. The sintered PLZST ceramics exhibit a room-temperature recoverable energy-storage density as high as 1.93J/cm(3) with an efficiency of 75%, which varies only slightly in the temperature range of 20-120 degrees C. The high energy-storage density (>1.9J/cm(3)) over a wide temperature range illustrates that the sol-gel-derived PLZST ceramics with low-cost dibutyltin oxide are quite promising for manufacturing pulse power capacitors.