Antiferroelectrics may led to better ways of storing solar and wind power. Source: University of ArkansasResearchers at the University of Arkansas, in collaboration with Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, have shown that antiferroelectrics can provide high energy density leading to possible new ways to improve the efficiency of wind and solar power.

Production of renewable electricity fluctuates from second to second and as a result any device designed to store it must cope with constantly changing loads and still achieve high energy density relative to size. Batteries, supercapacitors and other technologies can achieve high densities but can’t react quickly enough to changing conditions. Electrostatic capacitors react quickly but can’t hold enough energy for large-scale use.

On the other hand, antiferroelectrics are materials in which adjacent dipoles (positive and negative charge centers separated by a very small space) are ordered in opposite direction of one another. Ferroelectric materials, by contrast, have adjacent dipoles ordered in the same direction. Antiferroelectrics become ferroelectric with the application of a high enough electric field.

Researchers used this characteristic to predict that high energy density and efficiency can be achieved in antiferroelectrics, in particular with a rare-earth element bismuth ferrite. Researchers were able to create a model to explain the connection between energy density and the electric field, which could lead to better ways of storing renewable energy.