Glass-ceramics of barium strontium titanate for high energy density capacitors

Barium strontium titanate glass-ceramics were successfully produced with one major crystalline phase when Al2O3 was added to the melt. A dielectric constant of 1000 and a breakdown strength of 800 kV/cm was achieved; however the energy density was only measured to be 0.3-0.9 J/cm(3). These energy density values were lower than anticipated due to the presence of dendrites and pores in the microstructure. Using BaF2 as a refining agent improved the microstructure and doubled the energy density for BST 80/20 samples. However, no refining agent reduced the increasing amount of hysteresis that developed with increasing applied electric field. This phenomenon is believed to be due to interfacial polarization.