Electro-Thermal Synergetic Effect In 0.94bi(0.5)Na(0.5)Tio(3)-0.06bazr(0.2)Ti(0.8)O(3): Zno Pyroelectric Composites For High-Performance Thermal Energy Harvesting

Pyroelectric energy harvesters based on lead-free ceramics cannot meet the requirement for practical applications due to their low energy conversion capacity. In this work, high-performance thermal energy harvesting with the greatly enhanced pyroelectric coefficient and rate of temperature change has been achieved by compositing the zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor into 0.94Bi(0.5)Na(0.5)TiO(3)-0.06BaZr(0.2)Ti(0.8)O(3) (BNT-BZT) ceramic matrixes. The ZnO semiconductor not only provides charge carriers for accelerating the transportation of free charge to improve the pyroelectric coefficient of BNT-BZT: ZnO but also enhances the temperature variation rate dT/dt of the samples because of its high thermal conductivity. Owing to the electrothermal synergetic effect of the ZnO semiconductor, a highly improved energy harvesting performance of the energy density reaching up to 130 mu J cm(-3) is achieved, which is over three times compared to that of the pristine BNT-BZT ceramics. This work will provide an effective and facile approach to develop high-performance pyroelectric composite ceramics for thermal energy harvesting applications. Published under license by AIP Publishing.