Reducing dielectric loss in Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 based high temperature capacitor material

The demand for capacitors exhibiting low sensitivity towards temperature changes and high power peaks has increased significantly. Recently, Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) based ceramics became excellent candidates for such extreme temperature capacitors. The dielectric loss of these materials is, however, difficult to control because of the complex defect chemistry of NBT based ceramics. Therefore, it is the limiting factor for high temperature applications. In this work, we present a strategy to increase the upper temperature limit for low dielectric loss. The addition of BiAlO3 to Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-BaTiO3-CaZrO3 reduces the loss and sensitivity towards Bi evaporation during synthesis. For unmodified samples, the relative permittivity (εr = 581, at 1 kHz) varies less than 15 %, while the dielectric loss stays below 0.02 between -68 and 368 °C. With the addition of BiAlO3, the temperature range of low loss extends from -68 to 391 °C at even higher permittivity (εr = 628, at 1 kHz).