Pyroelectric energy converters are functional capacitors that use a pyroelectric material as the dielectric layer. By utilizing a first-order phase transformation of the material, a pyroelectric device can generate an adequate amount of electricity from small temperature fluctuations. However, most pyroelectric capacitors leak during energy conversion. In this paper, we analyze the thermodynamics of pyroelectric energy conversion with consideration of electric leakage. Our thermodynamic model is verified by experiments using three phase-transforming ferroelectric materials with different pyroelectric properties and leakage behaviors. We demonstrate that the impact of leakage on electric generation is prominent, and sometimes may be confused with the actual power generation by pyroelectricity. We discover a material candidate, $(\mathrm{Ba},\mathrm{Ca})(\mathrm{Ti},\mathrm{Zr},\mathrm{Ce}){\mathrm{O}}_3$, that exhibits a large pyroelectric current and an extremely low leakage current. A pyroelectric converter made of this material generates a pyroelectric current density of $1.95\mu \mathrm{A}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ and a pyroelectric work density of $0.2\mathrm{J}/{\mathrm{cm}}^3$ even after 1389 thermodynamic-conversion cycles.

中文翻译：

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热电转换器泄漏对发电的影响

热电能量转换器是使用热电材料作为介电层的功能电容器。通过利用材料的一阶相变，热电装置可以从很小的温度波动中产生足够量的电能。但是，大多数热电电容器在能量转换期间会泄漏。在本文中，我们在考虑漏电的情况下分析了热电能量转换的热力学。我们的热力学模型通过使用具有不同热电特性和泄漏行为的三相相变铁电材料的实验进行了验证。我们证明泄漏对发电的影响是突出的，有时可能会与热释电的实际发电相混淆。我们发现了一个重要的候选人，$（巴，钙）（钛，锆，铈）{\mathrm{Ø}}_3$，表现出大的热释电电流和极低的漏电流。由这种材料制成的热电转换器产生的热电电流密度为$1.95\mu \mathrm{一种}/{\mathrm{厘米}}^2$ 热电功密度为 $0.2\mathrm{Ĵ}/{\mathrm{厘米}}^3$ 即使在1389次热力学转换循环之后。