High temperature-stability of (Pb0.9La0.1)(Zr0.65Ti0.35)O3 ceramic for energy-storage applications at finite electric field strength

Temperature stability is one of the key factors for energy storage application of dielectric capacitors especially under stringent environmental conditions. In this work, we report that the (Pb0.9La0.1)(Zr0.65Ti0.35)O-3 ceramic exhibits small variation of energy density (<15%) over a wide temperature range (24 degrees C similar to 83 degrees C) at low field strength (E < 25 kV/cm). Further TEM observation and phase field simulations suggest that it can be attributed to continuous formation and growth of polar nanoregions with temperature and electric field, resulting in high-temperature stability for dielectric permittivity and energy density. Our finding may have implications for developing dielectric energy-storing devices with high thermal reliability. (C) 2017 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.