Abstract
Lead-free dielectric capacitors commonly rely on chemical disorder design to regulate relaxor behavior. In order to avoid the polarization sacrifice caused by non-ferroactive cations while maintaining a strong enough local random field, an oxygen octahedron tilt framework design strategy is introduced in this work. Based on the Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-AgNbO3 system with high-content ferroactive cations, slush-like heterogeneous polar nanoregions enable a large polarization response. Meanwhile, besides the local random electric and elastic fields caused by the heterovalence and different cation radii, the additional local random elastic field caused by the randomly disordered distribution of the BO6 tilt mode and angle not only slows polarization reorientation and growth but also provides a restoring force to reset polarization during charging, enabling the slim hysteresis loop with delayed polarization saturation as well as excellent energy storage properties. This work provides a feasible avenue for high-performance lead-free relaxors with low tolerance factor.
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All data supporting this study and its findings are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. Any data deemed relevant are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFB3508200 (H.Q.)), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52202127 (J.W.), 12404103 (H.L.) and 52462017 (H.L.)), the Outstanding Young Scientist Program of Beijing Colleges and Universities (JWZQ20240101015 (J.C.)), the Start-up Research Foundation of Hainan University (Grant No. XJ2500000599 (J.W.) and XJ2500000594 (Y.L.)), and the State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, China.
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The manuscript was written through the contributions of all authors. J.W. and H.Q. conceived this study. Y.L. performed this study with the supervision of J.W., H.Q., and J.C. Y.L. and H.L. fabricated the samples and carried out the electrical measurements. The XRD and dielectric spectra were collected by W.-S.F. and X.-S.M. The finite element simulation was processed by H.-F.Y. L.C. and S.-Q.D. conducted the microstructural SEM, TEM and STEM research. Y.C. conducted the in-situ XRD measurements for this work. J.W. conducted the PDF research. The manuscript was drafted by Y.L. and H.L., revised by J.W., H.Q., and J.C.
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Liu, Y., Li, H., Wu, J. et al. Oxygen octahedron framework design for large energy capacitive relaxors. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69282-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69282-7
