Tailoring Relaxor Antiferroelectric Ceramics for Energy Storage (TRACES)

Investigator
Provider and programme
GACR » International Lead Agency
Commencement date
4/1/2024
Completion date
3/31/2027
Registration number
24-10699K
Producing energy from renewable sources imposes challenges related to storing a constantly fluctuating energy. The development of innovative materials for high-energy storage with good temperature stability is therefore essential for applications in electric vehicles, aeronautics, geothermal energy exploitation, etc. Nowadays, no material completely meets the current industrial requirements. Recent models describing the energy density and efficiency of antiferroelectric materials provide an encouraging guidance towards achieving good storage properties in small, light, inexpensive, and environmentally-friendly components. In this interdisciplinary bilateral Czech-Slovenian project we propose to develop new environment-friendly, lead-free relaxor antiferroelectric materials and to design proof-of-concept multilayer capacitors on the basis of lattice-dynamics and structure-property characterization of materials across multiple length-scales, supported by simulations and modelling.

News & Events

  • Poster presentation of results in the international conference FerroSchool in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 21th November 2024. DOI: 0.13140/RG.2.2.19216.93447
  • Poster presentation of results in the international conference UFFC-ISAF Joint Symposium September 2024, Taipei DOI: 0.13140/RG.2.2.11122.11205
  • Talk and poster presentation of results in the international conference Isydma’9 in Marrakesh, 7th May 2025.
Elena Buixaderas
The international conference Isydma’9 in Marrakesh, 7th May 2025.

Team leaders

Elena Buixaderas
Mojca Otoničar

Dr. Elena Buixaderas
Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Prague, Czechia

Dr. Mojca Otoničar
                             Jožef Stefan Institute                             
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Highlights

Understanding the influence of cationic substitution on antiferroelectricity

Revisiting phonons and the phase transition sequence in antiferroelectric Pb0.98La0.02(Zr0.95Ti0.05)O3
Anirudh K R, Cosme Milesi-Brault, Přemysl Vaněk, Esther de Prado and Elena Buixaderas
Phys. Scr. 100 (2025) 075908.

This paper, using calorimetry, XRD and Raman spectroscopy, reveals how subtle compositional effects modify the phase transition sequence and the fundamental lattice dynamics of PZT 95/5 ceramics, stabilizing its antiferroelectric state at higher temperatures and introducing intermediate IC phases. This helps to understand the compositional substitutions effects in other antiferroelectric materials.

Phase diagram of PLZT
Temperature-La content phase diagram for PLZT 100x/95/5. Thermal hysteresis is seen in the line between the two ferroelectric states in PZT 95/5 and in the line between the two antiferroelectric states in PLZT.

 

Publications

Reports

(more detailed reports available on request)