Microwave versus conventional sintering of NaNbO3 modified BNT–BT–BKT ceramics

Lead-free Ferroelectric (FE) capacitors are attractive sources for energy storage. Finding a suitable lead free FE material for energy storage applications. It is important to replace lead (Pb)-based material due to its hazardous nature. Pb-based materials show optimum performance due to its lone electron effect. Similar electron lone pair effect is observed in bismuth-based materials. Therefore, bismuth-based materials, i.e. Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT) is one of the alternatives for Pb-based material. 0.92[0.884Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3–0.036BaTiO3–0.08Bi0.5K0.5TiO3]–0.08NaNbO3 ceramics are prepared in both conventional and microwave (MW) assisted solid-state reaction route. Morphotrophic Phase Boundary nature of the prepared ceramics is confirmed using X-ray diffraction. Comparatively, MW sintered ceramics exhibited enhanced densification with ultrafine grains, high dielectric constant, low dielectric loss and high-energy storage density. Therefore, MW sintered ceramics are one of the promising materials for energy storage applications.