Boosting the Energy Storage Performances of Dy ₂ O ₃ -modified Pb 0.95 La 0.02 Ca 0.03 (Zr 0.6 Sn 0.4 ) 0.995 O ₃ Antiferroelectric Ceramics via the Grain Boundary Effect

Antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics exhibit significant potential for high-performance energy storage applications due to their distinctive field-induced AFE-ferroelectric (FE) phase transitions. However, the energy storage performance is often severely limited by the insufficient breakdown electric strength (BDS) caused by coarse-grained microstructures. In this work, x wt % Dy₂O₃-modified Pb0.95La0.02Ca0.03(Zr0.6Sn0.4)0.995O₃ (PLCZS) AFE ceramics (Dx, x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) were designed to enhance the BDS by utilizing the grain boundary effect. The BDS value increases from 580 kV·cm⁻¹ to 750 kV·cm⁻¹ as the Dy₂O₃ content is raised from 0 to 0.2 wt %. The D0.2 ceramic exhibits a recoverable energy density (Wrec) of 18.36 J·cm⁻³ and an energy storage efficiency (η) of 86.39%. Moreover, the D0.2 ceramic demonstrates outstanding cycling stability with variations in Wrec and η of less than 1.0% over 10⁶ cycles at 500 kV·cm⁻¹. It achieves a high discharge energy density (Wdis) of 14.32 J·cm⁻³ and an ultrafast discharge time (t0.9) of 36 ns under 650 kV·cm⁻¹. This ceramic also obtains a high current density (CD) of 2624 A·cm⁻² and a high power density (PD) of 879 MW·cm⁻³. These outstanding results not only confirm the efficacy of Dy₂O₃ doping in enhancing energy storage performance but also underscore the great promise of the modified PLCZS antiferroelectric ceramics for advanced pulsed power applications.