Superior energy storage properties of BiFeO3 doped NaNbO3 antiferroelectric ceramics

NaNbO 3 (NN)-based dielectric ceramics for energy storage have garnered significant interest due to their high saturation polarization, low residual polarization, and superior breakdown strength ( E b ). However, the low recoverable energy storage density ( W rec ) and efficiency ( η ) significantly limited their practical application. Herein, BiFeO 3 (BF) was incorporated into NN to optimize the energy storage performance. The NN-BF ceramics exhibited pronounced antiferroelectric (AFE) relaxor phase, alongside grain size reduction and E b enhancement, which contributed to a significant increase of W rec and η . Specially, the optimum W rec of 4.43 J/cm³ and η of 71.51 % were achieved at the composition of 0.9NN-0.1BF. Besides, stable energy storage performance was maintained over a wide temperature range (20–120 °C). These results highlight the potential of NN-BF relaxor AFE ceramics as promising candidates for high-performance energy storage applications.