Influence of the composition-induced structure evolution on the electrocaloric effect in Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-based solid solution

The present work investigated the influence of the composition induced structure evolution on the electrocaloric effect in lead-free (0.935-x) Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.065BaTiO(3)-xSrTiO(3) (BNBST, BNBSTx) ceramics. It was found that broad Delta T peak could be observed for all compositions and the electrocaloric strength alpha (alpha=Delta T-max/Delta E) in BNBST0.02 could reach as high as 0.27 K mm/kV. The increase of the SrTiO3 concentration led to a shift of Delta T-max to a lower temperature, resulting in a large near room-temperature electrocaloric strength alpha of 0.17 K mm/kV in BNBST0.22. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.