Enhanced energy storage performance in (Pb0.858Ba0.1La0.02Y0.008)(Zr0.65Sn0.3Ti0.05)O3–(Pb0.97La0.02)(Zr0.9Sn0.05Ti0.05)O3 anti-ferroelectric composite ceramics by Spark Plasma Sintering

• The composite ceramics have much higher energy storage density than pure anti-ferroelectrics.
• SPS process can suppress the diffusion behavior between the tetragonal and orthorhombic phases.
• A high recoverable energy storage density of 6.40 J/cm3 was obtained in the composite ceramics.

Anti-ferroelectric composite ceramics of (Pb0.858Ba0.1La0.02Y0.008)(Zr0.65Sn0.3Ti0.05)O3–(Pb0.97La0.02)(Zr0.9Sn0.05Ti0.05)O3 (PBLYZST–PLZST) have been fabricated by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. The effect of SPS process on phase structure, anti-ferroelectric and energy storage properties of the composites has been investigated in detail. The X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectrometry analysis illustrate that the composites are composed of tetragonal perovskite, orthorhombic perovskite and small amount of non-functional pyrochlore phases. Compared with conventional solid-state sintering (CS) process, SPS process is helpful to suppress the diffusion behavior between the tetragonal PBLYZST and orthorhombic PLZST phases, and thereby improve the contribution of PLZST phase to the FE-to-AFE phase transition electric field (EA) of the composites. As a result, the SPS composite ceramics possess a considerable EA of 162 kV/cm and a high recoverable energy storage density valued 6.40 J/cm3 which is 1.75 J/cm3 higher than that of the CS samples and about 2.3 times as that of the PBLYZST ceramics.