Lead free glass-ceramic dielectrics: A highly potential material for energy storage, photonics and memory applications

To maintain a modern livelihood, huge amount of energy is needed which are primarily sourced from fossil fuels that causes global warming and has become an environmental concern. The use of renewable and sustainable green energy has been increasing day by day which needs efficient devices for storage and supply of energy on demand. Among the energy storage devices, batteries have a high energy storage density and low power output, while capacitors possess relatively lower energy density but are capable of exhibiting a high-power output. Dielectric capacitors show high-power density, ultra-fast charge-discharge rates and higher efficiency which make them indispensable for application in electronic devices. Dielectric materials used in the commercially available capacitors are mostly lead based ferroelectric and anti-ferroelectric ceramics.  As lead is toxic and causes havoc environmental concerns, the usage of lead/heavy metal containing materials is being gradually phased out and alternate lead-free high-performance materials are sought after. Due to difficulties in ceramic synthesis technique, uncontrolled grain growth and other defects are created resulting in poor dielectric properties. This article tries to present lead-free anti-ferroelectric glass-ceramics based dielectrics as an emerging material for catering to the future green energy demands.  Lead free glass-ceramics based dielectrics are multifunctional materials with huge potentials for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) and photonic applications, besides their prospects as a future energy storage material.