Small Distortions, Big Polarization: Tetragonal BaTiO3 Nanoparticles for High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerators
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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BibTeX
@misc{jokare2026small,
title = {{Small Distortions, Big Polarization: Tetragonal BaTiO3 Nanoparticles for High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerators}},
author = {Shivshankar Jokare and Vikash Kushwaha and Mandar Shirolkar and Shruti Kharadkar and R. Boomishankar and Smita Chaturvedi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.08762},
eprint = {2610.08762},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08762},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Small Distortions, Big Polarization: Tetragonal BaTiO3 Nanoparticles for High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerators
AU - Shivshankar Jokare
AU - Vikash Kushwaha
AU - Mandar Shirolkar
AU - Shruti Kharadkar
AU - R. Boomishankar
AU - Smita Chaturvedi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.08762
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08762
AB - 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.
ER -