Large electrocaloric effect in Ba(Ti1-xSnx)O3 ceramics over a broad temperature region

A large electrocaloric effect (ECE) near room temperature is reported in Sn doped BaTiO3 ceramics. By tuning Ba(Ti1-xSnx)O-3 compositions which also exhibit relaxor ferroelectric response to near the invariant critical point, the Ba(Ti1-xSnx)O-3 bulk ceramics at x similar to 0.12 exhibit a large EC coefficient (Delta T/Delta E=0.27*10(-6)K . mV(-1)) over a 50 K temperature range. In addition to that, the diffuse phase transition is successfully applied to broaden the EC peaks under low electric field. These properties added together indicate a general solution of the electrocaloric materials with high performance for practical cooling applications. (C) 2015 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.