Lead-free bismuth sodium titanate (BNT)-based ceramics have attracted strong attention as environmentally benign dielectric materials for high-efficiency electrostatic energy-storage capacitors. A key challenge is that pristine BNT typically exhibits large hysteresis, high remnant polarization, and limited dielectric reliability, which restrict recoverable energy storage and efficiency under practical electric fields. Here, we present a focused mini-review of recent studies to clarify how composition design, phase boundary tuning, defect chemistry, and microstructural control collectively enable slim or pinched polarization-electric field (P-E) behavior and improved energy-storage functionality in BNT-related bulk ceramics. The reviewed outcomes consistently show that stabilizing relaxor states governed by polar nanoregions (PNRs), often via solid-solution engineering and secondary relaxor/antiferroelectric-like incorporation, suppresses irreversible switching and reduces hysteresis loss, while densification and grain-size control enhance electrical homogeneity and breakdown strength. In addition, defect-mediated tuning of oxygen vacancy-related complexes is highlighted as an independent lever to control relaxor ergodicity and polarization reversibility, providing a complementary route to slim-loop optimization. These insights are expected to guide integrated design strategies that couple phase/relaxor-state engineering with defect and microstructure optimization, accelerating the development of reliable, temperature-robust, lead-free dielectric capacitors based on BNT-related ceramics.

This review addresses the development trends of dielectric ceramics, the key material for Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCCs), which are essential components in high-performance electronic devices. Traditional MLCCs have employed BaTiO₃ (BT)-based dielectrics to achieve high dielectric constant and low resistance. By minimizing oxygen vacancies and suppressing grain growth in BT materials, the temperature and voltage stability of MLCCs have been improved, leading to the development of MLCCs with diverse properties. However, the maximum dielectric constant of approximately 3000 in BT materials poses a limitation in overcoming the trade-off between rated voltage and capacitance density. Therefore, ultra-high permittivity dielectric materials have gained attention to meet the requirements of ultra-high-performance MLCCs, and ongoing research focuses on enhancing the temperature and frequency stability of these materials. This review analyzes the characteristics and limitations of conventional BT materials and explores recent research trends and future potential in developing new MLCCs based on ultra-high dielectric constant materials.

(Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃(BNT) piezoelectric ceramics are one of the promising materials that can replace Pb(Zr, Ti)O₃(PZT) piezoelectric ceramics due to the high electromechanical strain properties. However, it is still difficult to use practical applications because the required electric field for inducing electromechanical strain is relatively higher than that of PZT ceramics. To overcome this problem, it has been intensively studied on doping impurity or modifying other ABO₃ for BNTbased piezoelectric ceramics. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of La₂O₃ doping on the phase transition behavior and electromechanical strain properties in BNT-SrTiO₃ (BNT-ST) lead-free piezoelectric ceramics. In the case of the temperaturedependent dielectric properties, it was confirmed that a phase transition from ferroelectrics to relaxors is induced with increasing La₂O₃ content. As a result, the electromechanical strain properties of BNT-ST ceramics were improved. The highest Smax/Emax value corresponding to 300 pm/V was obtained at 2 mol% La₂O₃-dopped BNT-ST ceramics. Accordingly, this study successfully demonstrated that La₂O₃ doping is effective on the inducing phase transition from ferroelectrics to relaxors and the improving electromechanical strain properties of BNT-ST lead-free piezoelectric ceramics.

This study investigated crystal structures, microstructures, and electric-field-induced strain (EFIS) properties of Bibased lead-free ferroelectric/relaxor composites. Bi_1/2(Na_0.82K_0.18)_1/2TiO₃ (BNKT) as a ferroelectric material and 0.78Bi_1/2(Na_0.78K_0.22)_1/2TiO₃-0.02LaFeO₃ (BNKT2LF) as a relaxor material were synthesized using a conventional solid-state reaction method, and the resulting BNKT2LF powders were subjected to high-energy ball milling (HEBM) after calcination. As a result, HEBM proved a larger average grain size of sintered samples compared to conventional ball milling (CBM). In addition, the increased sintering time led to grain growth. Furthermore, HEBM treatment and sintering time demonstrated a significant effect on EFIS of BNKT/BNKT2LF composites. At 6 kV/mm, 0.35% of the maximum strain (S_max) was observed in the HEBM sample sintered for 12 h. The unipolar strain curves of CBM samples were almost linear, indicating almost no phase transitions, while HEBM samples displayed phase transitions at 5~6 kV/mm for all sintering time levels, showing the highest S_max/E_max value of 700 pm/V. These results indicated that HEBM treatment with a long sintering time might significantly enhance the electromechanical strain properties of BNT-based ceramics.

Morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), which is a special boundary that separates two or multiple different phases in the phase diagram of some ferroelectric ceramics, is an important concept in identifying physics that includes piezoelectric responses. MPB, which had not been discovered in organic materials until recently, was discovered in poly(vinylidene fluoride-co- trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)), resulting from a molecular approach. The piezoelectric coefficient of P(VDF-TrFE) in this MPB region was achieved up to -63.5 pC N^-1, which is about two times as large as the conventional value of -30 pC N^-1 of P(VDF-TrFE). An order-disorder arrangement greatly affects the rise of the piezoelectric effect and the ferroelectric, paraelectric and relaxor ferroelectric of P(VDF-TrFE), so the arrangement and shape of the polymer chain is important. In this review, we investigate the origin of negative longitudinal piezoelectric coefficients of piezoelectric polymers, which is definitely opposite to those of common piezoelectric ceramics. In addition to the mainly discussed issue about MPB behaviors of ferroelectric polymers, we also introduce the consideration about polymer chirality resulting in relaxor ferroelectric properties. When the physics of ferroelectric polymers is unveiled, we can improve the piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of ferroelectric polymers and contribute to the development of next-generation sensor, energy, transducer and actuator applications.

Electrical poling is a crucial step to convert ferroelectrics to piezoelectrics. Nevertheless, no systematic investigation on the effect of poling has been reported. Given that the poling involves an alignment of spontaneous polarization, the condition for poling should be different when a material has an internal bias field that influences the domain stability. Here, we present the effect of poling profile on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties in Mn-doped Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-29 mol%PbTiO₃ single crystal with an internal bias field. We showed that both the dielectric permittivity and the piezoelectric coefficient were further enhanced when the poling procedure ends with a field application along the opposite direction to the internal bias field. We expect that the current finding would give a clue to understanding the true mechanism for the electrical poling.

This study investigated the structural, dielectric, ferroelectric, and strain properties of (0.98-x)Bi_1/2Na_1/2TiO₃- 0.02BiFeO_3-xSrTiO₃ (BNT-BF-100xST, x＝0.20, 0.22, 0.24, 0.26, and 0.28). All samples were successfully synthesized using the conventional solid-state reaction method and sintered at 1,175℃ for 2 h. The average grain size of the BNT-BF-100x ceramics decreased with increasing ST content. Furthermore, we observed that the ferroelectric- relaxor transition temperature (T_F-R) decreased with increasing ST content, which eventually vanished in the BNT-BF-24ST ceramics. The results indicated that a ferroelectric to relaxor phase transition could be induced by ST modification. Consequently, a large electromechanical strain of 633 pm/V at 4 kV/mm was observed for the BNT-BF-26ST ceramics. These results imply that our materials have the competitive advantage of larger strain under lower operating field conditions compared with other BNT-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics. We expect that BNT-BF-ST lead-free piezoelectric ceramics are promising candidates as a novel ternary BNT-based system and can find potential applications in actuators.

P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) (Poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene)), which exhibits a high electrostriction of about 7%, can transmit tactile output as vibration or displacement. In this study, we investigated the applicability of P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) to wearable piezoelectric actuators. The P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) layers were deposited through spin-coating, and interspaced with patterned Ag electrodes to fabricate a two-layer 3.5 mm × 3.5 mm device. This layered structure was designed and fabricated to increase the output and displacement of the actuator at low driving voltages. In addition, a laser vibrometer and piezoelectric force microscope were used to analyze the device’s vibration characteristics over the range of ~200~4,200 Hz. The on-off characteristics were confirmed at a frequency of 40 Hz.

We investigated dielectric relaxation properties of 0.95(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.05BaTiO3 ceramics byaddition (0∼0.3 wt%) of (Ba,Ca)SiO3 glass frit. All composition of 0.95(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.05BaTiO3 added(Ba,Ca)SiO3 glass frit showed the same crystallographic properties, coexistence of orthorhombic andtetragonal phase. By increasing addition of (Ba,Ca)SiO3 glass frit, the Curie temperatures of0.95(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.05BaTiO3 ceramics were decreased, whereas maximum dielectric constants of0.95(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.05BaTiO3 ceramics were dramatically increased. Especially the deviations of Curietemperature 0.95(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.05BaTiO3 ceramics were increased by increasing amount of(Ba,Ca)SiO3 glass frit, and it indicated that 0.95(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.05BaTiO3 ceramics added (Ba,Ca)SiO3glass frit have relaxor characteristics.