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Grain size engineering and growth mechanism in hydrothermal synthesis of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 thin films on Nb-doped SrTiO3 substrates

  • Original Paper: Functional coatings, thin films and membranes (including deposition techniques)
  • Published:
Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Considering the full utilization of energy and pursuing thin-film capacitors with high energy-storage density, the grain size engineering is used to adjust domain size, in order to enhance the energy-storage efficiency and energy-storage density of thin-film capacitors. Therefore, in this work, lead-free Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT) films with designed grain size were grown on Nb-doped SrTiO3 (Nb:STO) (001) single-crystalline substrates by modulating the mineralizer concentrations via hydrothermal synthesis. The nature of epitaxial growth near the single-crystalline substrates was proved by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, the phenomenon of the decrease of grain size and the increase of [100] in-plane orientation with the decline of mineralizer concentrations were clarified by grazing-angle incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). By reducing the grain size, an ultrahigh energy-storage efficiency (η) of 75.56% and superior the recoverable energy-storage density (Wrec) of 16.47 J/cm3 were acquired in pure Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 films. Furthermore, the fine-grained film exhibits weak dependence on the frequency and has excellent anti-fatigue property. Therefore, hydrothermal synthesis is an efficient, inexpensive, and easy method, which is the most promising way to adjust grain size and energy storage of the film capacitor.

By decreasing the concentration of mineralizer, the thinner film with a smaller grain size can be obtained, which greatly improves the Pr and applied electric field of the BNT film. Hence, an ultrahigh η of 75.56% and superior Wrec of 16.47 J/cm3 were acquired in pure BNT film.

Highlights

  • Various grain size of BNT films are grown on STO by hydrothermal synthesis.

  • The growth mechanism of BNT films with different grain size is discussed in detail.

  • The energy-storage performance of BNT films is enhanced by decreasing grain size.

  • A superior energy-storage efficiency of 75.56% is acquired in pure BNT film.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, 210009, Nanjing, China

    Fujun Chen, Hao Qian, Xiaoyuan Sun, Mu Song, Yunfei Liu & Yinong Lyu

  2. Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing, China

    Fujun Chen, Hao Qian, Xiaoyuan Sun, Mu Song, Yunfei Liu & Yinong Lyu

  3. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Inorganic Function Composites, Nanjing, China

    Fujun Chen, Hao Qian, Xiaoyuan Sun, Mu Song, Yunfei Liu & Yinong Lyu

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  1. Fujun Chen
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  2. Hao Qian
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  3. Xiaoyuan Sun
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  4. Mu Song
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Correspondence to Yunfei Liu or Yinong Lyu.

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Chen, F., Qian, H., Sun, X. et al. Grain size engineering and growth mechanism in hydrothermal synthesis of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 thin films on Nb-doped SrTiO3 substrates. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 99, 366–375 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-021-05586-y

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