Heat-to-electricity conversion using barium strontium titanate multilayer capacitors

Pyroelectric materials are attractive for converting heat into electricity, yet the best performance is obtained with lead-containing ceramics, remaining a major environmental concern. Here, we address this problem by developing lead-free barium strontium titanate multilayer capacitors (Ba0.65Sr0.35Ti0.998Mn0.002O3 MLCs). A maximum energy density of 3.7 J cm-3 is achieved under an applied field of 300 kV cm⁻¹ across a 170 K temperature span in an Olsen electro-thermodynamic cycle. We conducted Olsen cycles with two approaches: electric displacement-electric field (D-E) loops and stepwise control of temperatures and voltages, which provide consistent results. In addition, we found that Ba0.65Sr0.35Ti0.998Mn0.002O3 MLCs show a second-order ferroelectric–to-paraelectric (FE-to-PE) phase transition, which shifts to higher temperatures by the applied electric field. This provides a broad and practical temperature window for low-grade waste heat recovery. Our study shows that the performance of pyroelectric energy harvesting in barium strontium titanate materials is comparable to their conventional lead-based counterpart (3.6 J cm-3 in lead scandium tantalate in similar conditions), revealing the promising prospective of sustainable energy recovery applications.