Enhanced pyroelectric properties of porous Ba0.67Sr0.33TiO3 ceramics fabricated with carbon nanotubes

Porous Ba0.67Sr0.33TiO3 pyroelectric ceramics were fabricated with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as pore formers and the micro-structural, dielectric, and pyroelectric properties were systemically investigated. The porous BST ceramic fabricated with CNTs exhibited extremely high pyroelectric coefficient of 9500 mu c/m(2) degrees C and figure-of-merit of 32.0 x 10(-5) Pa-0.5 which were 2 and 3 times those of their dense counterpart, along with lower dielectric constant and heat capacity. Compared further with porous BST fabricated with methyl methacrylate as pore former, porous BST fabricated with CNTs also showed higher pyroelectric coefficient and figure-of-merit. All of these improvements are beneficial for the development of pyroelectric devices. Possible reasons for the significant enhancement in pyroelectric performances of the porous ceramics were discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.