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Comparative study of phase structure, dielectric properties and electrocaloric effect in novel high-entropy ceramics

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Abstract

Unique structure and performance in prominent high-entropy ceramics (HECs) have attracted enormous attentions recently. In this work, we have successfully synthesized pure-phase (Bi1/6Na1/6Sr1/6Ba1/6Pb1/6Ca1/6)TiO3 (BNSBPC) and (Bi1/6La1/6Na1/6K1/6Sr1/6Ba1/6)TiO3 (BLNKSB) HECs by conventional solid-state method. Rietveld refinement results show that BNSBPC composition possesses tetragonal phase (P4mm) while the BLNKSB one exhibits cubic phase (Pm \(\overline{3}\) m). Dielectric characterization reveals distinct relaxation behaviors between BNSBPC and BLNKSB compositions. Relaxor-like nature in BNSBPC and Debye medium in BLNKSB one are verified by dielectric, ferroelectric and Raman spectra characterizations. Maximal electrocaloric effect (ECE, ΔTmax) reaches 0.63 K with relatively narrow temperature span (ΔTspan) of ~ 20 K at 60 kV cm−1 for BNSBPC ceramic, while the BLNKSB one possesses superior temperature stability (ΔTspan = 100 K) with ΔTmax = 0.14 K. Room-temperature ECE is also obtained by home-made adiabatic calorimeter, which indicates a positive ECE for both compositions. Finally, phase structure, dielectric properties and ECE in two high-entropy compositions are comparatively discussed to explore structure–ECE relationships in HECs. The superior thermal stability of ECE in BLNKSB samples provides a broad prospect for designing solid-state refrigeration.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 2008085QE205), Anhui Provincial higher–education Natural Science research project (KJ2020A0019), the Open Project Program of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Functional Materials and Devices, Huizhou University (No. EFMD2020004Z), Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials (Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 201006–K) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51872001 and 51772211).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Dielectric Functional Materials, School of Physics & Materials Science, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Wei Liu, Li Li, Youmin Guo & Chunchang Wang

  2. Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Wei Liu, Feng Li & Hongwei Shi

  3. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, 541004, China

    Guohua Chen

  4. School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 Caoan road, Shanghai, 201804, China

    Guohui Li & Jiwei Zhai

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  1. Wei Liu
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  2. Feng Li
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Correspondence to Feng Li or Chunchang Wang.

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Liu, W., Li, F., Chen, G. et al. Comparative study of phase structure, dielectric properties and electrocaloric effect in novel high-entropy ceramics. J Mater Sci 56, 18417–18429 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06530-9

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