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arXiv · 2610.08762

Small Distortions, Big Polarization: Tetragonal BaTiO3 Nanoparticles for High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerators

Shivshankar Jokare·Vikash Kushwaha·Mandar Shirolkar·Shruti Kharadkar·R. Boomishankar·Smita Chaturvedi
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Abstract

Lead-free ferroelectric BaTiO3 (BTO) nanoparticles with stabilized tetragonal distortion were synthesized via a ligand-assisted sol-gel method to serve as the active piezoelectric phase in high-performance hybrid piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) operating with triboelectric synergy. XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and Pair Distribution Function (PDF) analysis confirmed pseudo-cubic tetragonal BTO nanoparticle, annealed at 900°C (BTO-900, ~54nm) and well-defined tetragonal BTO annealed at 1200°C (BTO-1200, ~104nm). Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations confirmed enhanced Ti-O covalency, stronger Ti 3d-O 2p hybridization, narrower HOMO-LUMO gap, and improved dipole coherence in BTO-900, indicating superior ferroelectric polarization, piezoelectric activity, and charge retention. BTO-900-PDMS PENG device generated a high open-circuit voltage of ~100 V and stored ~29 μJ energy, and superior capacitor-charging performance of BTO-900, while the optimized BTO-1200 based device showed a higher power density of ~649 μW cm-2 and short-circuit current of ~181 μA. The superior performance of BTO-900 was attributed to enhanced defect-assisted charge trapping, interfacial polarization, and impedance-controlled charge retention. By coupling the intrinsic piezoelectric response of covalency-engineered tetragonal BTO with triboelectric charge generation at the BTO-PDMS interface, this work establishes nanoparticle size and bonding engineering as an effective route to high-output, lead-free piezoelectric nanogenerators for self-powered electronics.

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Shivshankar Jokare, Vikash Kushwaha, Mandar Shirolkar, Shruti Kharadkar, R. Boomishankar, Smita Chaturvedi. 2026-10-06. Small Distortions, Big Polarization: Tetragonal BaTiO3 Nanoparticles for High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerators. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08762

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