Enhanced ferroelectricity for nanoporous barium titanate: a phase-field prediction

ABSTRACT

Porous ferroelectric materials show great potential for achieving competitive dielectric/piezoelectric properties with light weight. In this study, a phase-field model was employed to simulate the ferroelectric domain structure evolution of porous barium titanate. It is suggested that the ferroelectric/dielectric/piezoelectric properties are strongly influenced by the porosity level and the size of pores for porous ceramics. It is demonstrated that the ferroelectric switching behaviour, the remnant polarisation, the dielectric constant and the piezoelectric constant are enhanced in nanoporous ferroelectrics with ellipse-shaped pores by introducing mechanisms of symmetry breaking. By providing a means of achieving enhanced properties, nanoporous ferroelectrics with ellipse-shaped pores may have a broad impact on the applications of ferroelectrics and enhance the utility of the materials for selected applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Ferroelectric
• nanoporous
• BaTiO₃
• phase-field model

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the outstanding young research talents program (2016) in colleges and universities of Fujian province, the Cultivating Research Program of Xiamen Institute of Technology 2018, and the Joint Research Program of Xi’an Jiaotong University and Xiamen Institute of Technology with contract No. IPE20190802 (grant number IMT2019001).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the outstanding young research talents program (2016) in colleges and universities of Fujian province, the Cultivating Research Program of Xiamen Institute of Technology 2018, and the Joint Research Program of Xi’an Jiaotong University and Xiamen Institute of Technology with contract No. IPE20190802 (grant number IMT2019001). The author L. Du gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 51501146, 51372197), Outstanding Youth Science Fund of Xi’an University of Science and Technology (grant number 2019YQ2-07).